


White Curtains

by SamJ



Category: IT (2017), IT - Stephen King, SKAM (TV)
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Alcohol, Explicit Language, Explicit Sexual Content, Internalized Homophobia, M/M, Marijuana, Reddie, Sexual Content
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-29
Updated: 2017-12-21
Packaged: 2019-02-08 11:18:23
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 18
Words: 35,018
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12863367
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SamJ/pseuds/SamJ
Summary: Eddie is sure he’s straight. He ended up at that gay bar on accident, he got a grindr just to see what it is like, he got jealous of his best friend’s relationship obviously because he had feelings for his girlfriend. This is what he thinks, until one day where he meets Richie Tozier and everything is turned upside down.Based on Season 3 of the TV show SKAM





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Reposted from my tumblr, you can find that here http://that4amkick.tumblr.com/post/167921163343/white-curtains-masterlist

Saturday, 10:36 pm

Eddie began gagging and gasping for air as he shoved the still lit bong into his friend Bill’s hands, quickly reaching inside his pocket for his inhaler. 

“Shit Eddie, we said you didn’t have to smoke with us” Stan says, who was crammed sitting in a bathtub with Eddie, along with their two other friends Bill and Ben. 

“It’s alright, I wanted to try smoking with you guys again”. He really did mean that. Eddie enjoys smoking with his friends, being high is one of the only times his nerves are calmed down, but his asthma prevents him from smoking a lot. 

The four teenage boys were at a massive house party at their friend Max’s house; the entire place packed with drunk teenagers desperate to find the next stranger to blindly make out with against the nearest wall. So the boys had secluded themselves into an upstairs bathroom to get away from it, shoving themselves into an empty bathtub together. Ben was sitting on the edge pressed against the wall, then Bill beside him, Eddie in the middle, and Stan on the end. 

“Yeah, this is some good shit tho” Eddie said, still slightly coughing. The boys chuckled as they continued their conversation of discussing the hottest girls at the party.

“So hot, both her and Emily” Stan comments.

“Nah,” Eddie says “They’re not fuckable”. 

“What?!” Ben gasps, as the other two boys had similar reactions.

“What happened to you guys, getting such low standards?” Eddie jokes. 

“W-whats up with y-you man?” Bill asks.

“You’re talking a lot about standards, yet you should be a lot less picky, considering how ugly you are” Stan remarks as all the boys laugh, Eddie shooting him a dirty look. 

Eddie didn’t really understand what his friends saw in these girls. Sure they were pretty, but he didn’t really have much interest in any of them. He hadn’t had interests in that many girls at all for the matter, and had always been rather picky and selective like his friends had said he is. The only time he had ever really felt something for a girl was when Bill was dating their other good friend Max last year. Bill was his best friend, so he was always around the young couple. Seeing them together made his stomach kick and turn, he got incredulously jealous for no apparent reason. He thought he liked Max and this was why, that was why he hated watching Bill be affectionate with her. 

His jealousy of the couple got so bad that last year he broke Max’s trust and told everyone at school that she had cheated on Bill, ruining his two close friends’ relationship. He told them he did it because he had feelings for Max and was jealous of the two, and he believed himself as well. But when he tried to picture himself with Max, holding and kissing her; caressing her body in the way Bill did when the three of them would watch movies at one of their house’s together, he didn’t really feel anything. He had no real desire to be with Max. So he is still not entirely sure why seeing his best friend be with someone lit such a big fire in his chest.

“Is there not one hot girl? Not a single one?” Stan asks. 

“There has got to be someone” says Ben.

There was one girl at the party he thought he may be attracted to. Eddie had seen her at the party, she had short curly brown hair that flopped all over her face and head, and she had a smaller stature. He was pretty sure she was a grade below the four boys, making her a sophomore, and she was the only girl to even catch his eye. 

“There is one! She has short curly brown hair, I don’t know her name yet, but I’ve seen her. And she’s hot, yeah” Eddie says, tripping over his words trying to sound confident in his statement, not exactly sure how to articulate his feelings about the unknown girl. 

“Yeah, she’s pretty. I’ve seen her” agrees Stan. Eddie was happy his friends had finally left him alone about not finding any of the girls at the party hot.

“Yeah, t-the one that looks like N-natalie P-portman, right?” Bill says. 

“Exactly, exactly, exactly” Eddie stammers. 

“She really does”.

“That’s my girl”.

Bill starts to laugh, “I-i don’t think you stand a ch-chance”.

“Not in this life, not in the next one” Stan adds.

“I do stand a chance!” Eddie said, trying to show his friends he was serious about liking a girl for once.

“You d-ddon’t,” Bill continues “Her last boyfriend, or the last g-guy she was fooling around with, was a model who was just about to t-turn 20. He was tall, dark, you’re none of th-those things”.

“Okay, but why should I care about that?” As Eddie was about to defend his stance, Ben started to cough from the hit he just took, bringing everyone’s attention back to their task at hand of smoking.

“You gotta take the stash” Stan says to Bill, trying to make him take the baggy filled with weed.

“The s-ststash man? I’m not gonna take it, it always s-ssstresses me out. Keep it yourself” Bill says as the two boys begin to argue over who has to take the weed with them, continually throwing the bag at each other over Eddie who is stuck sat in between them. Eventually Eddie gets sick of their bickering and takes the bag out of Stan’s hand.

“I’ll take it then, Jesus Christ. What would you guys do without me” Eddie huffed, annoyed with his friends bickering. Just then, the bathroom door opens and a girl with blonde hair walks in. 

“W-whats going on? Can you close the d-door?” Bill asked, trying to be polite but not succeeding that well.

“I gotta pee” the girl retorts back, sounding annoyed with Bill.

“Yeah, just close the d-door”. She closes the door then sits down to use the toilet when another girl walks in. Eddie recognizes her right away, it’s the girl he had been talking about with the short brown locks.

“Hey! You can’t just leave” She says to the girl using the toilet. The girls start to bicker about this, as the four boys all give each other looks, whispering about how it’s the girl Eddie was trying to get with. 

“Good luck Eddie” Ben whispers, chuckling. The curly haired girl is holding a box of pills, as the two girls discuss what kind of recreational effect they could have on them.

“Do you know who you look like?” Eddie interrupts, trying to flirt with the girl in order to prove to his friends he is serious about her, about to say the first thing that comes to his mind in his inebriated state.

“Who?”

“That little boy from Stranger Things”. The boys start laughing hard at what Eddie said, as the two girls stand their offended by his words. “You know, the little boy who’s actually a girl. Eleven”. Eddie is not sure what came over him to make him say this, it was the only thing he could think of. But the girl really did look almost identical to the girl from Stranger Things. After all Eddie wasn’t really trying, he had no idea how to flirt with a girl; it was never something that came naturally to him. He really was only doing it to impress his friends. 

“That is so damn rude” The blonde girl says.

“No! She’s cute. If you’re turned on by 13 year old boys” The boys start to laugh even more.

“What?” the brunette girl says, sounding both hurt and confused.

“I was just kidding. Seriously, I was just kidding” he says with a straight face, “I’m sorry. My name’s Eddie, what’s yours?”

“Jane”.

“Jane, you’re damn beautiful”.

“I’m leaving” the blonde girl says sternly, and starts to walk out of the bathroom by herself, leaving Jane with the four boys. 

“Do you know if these work?” Jane asks Eddie, holding out the package of pills to him.

“Let me have a look” He stands up out of the bathtub, walking over to Jane by the sink. He takes the box from her hands, looking at the front. He recognizes them, they are one of the pills his mom used to make him take. 

“These? They’re for allergies, they make you tired. Do you want something that works?”

“Do you have something?” Jane asks, sounding excited and hopeful. 

“Maybe” He pulls one of his old gazebos that he still carries around out of his pocket, placing it on his tongue. He was reaching into his pocket for a second to give to the girl when Jane leans in and places her lips on his, sticking her tongue in Eddie’s mouth to take the pill from. Eddie hears his friends whooping congratulatory about him getting with Jane. The three boys leave the room, giving Eddie alone time with the younger girl. Suddenly he gets nervous, not really having wanted to make out with Jane in the first place, as he mainly did it to impress his friends. He tries to push away, beginning to feel uncomfortable, but Jane just take it farther and starts kissing down his chest. He begins to panic, not knowing how to tell Jane he doesn’t want to do anything with her. He didn’t understand why he wasn’t enjoying kissing her, he thought he found her pretty and that he could finally relate to his friends when they go on about their regular encounters with random girls at house parties. 

“Heyyyy” he shakily says, backing away. Just as the two separate, Jane’s friend walks back in the bathroom, telling her that they need to leave. Jane looks upset, and Eddie is pretty sure it’s because he doesn’t want her to touch him. He doesn’t want to upset her, he just does not feel anything when he touches her. As much as he would like to, Eddie is just picky when it comes to girls he guesses, even pickier than he thought before. Sometimes Eddie wonders if it’s really about the girls, or if it’s just him. 

He sits in the bathroom for a while, hearing the music blaring from the party downstairs. Once he decides to walk downstairs, he sees a police officer walking around the house, and becomes hyper aware of the baggy of weed still sitting in his jacket pocket. Panic runs through him, and even though he no longer lives at home, he can’t even imagine what his mom would do if he got arrested for having marijuana on him. He reaches for his inhaler to take a puff from it to calm him down so he can think straight about what to do. He tries to casually back up towards a desk at the far end of the room that he sees his friend Mike is sitting next to, and quickly shoves the bag into a vase on said desk. 

Eddie leaves the house, trying to sneak out the side through a fence. 

“Hey! Where are you going?” A cop behind Eddie shouts at him. He becomes paralyzed with fear, the weed still in his system not helping his paranoia as the police woman grabs his arm.

“Uh, home” he states, voice shaking as he tries his best to sound sober. 

“From over the fence?”

“Yeah”

“Everyone else is going out through over there?”. Eddie begins to mumble, not sure of how to get himself out of this, and is pretty sure the officer can tell he is high. “Are you carrying an ID with your name and age?” Suddenly Eddie hears a whistle, and looks over to see Bill sitting on his bike, looking back at him. He breathes a sigh of relief, knowing if he can distract the cop he can run over to Bill and get away from the house party. 

“No”

“Nothing?”

“..No”

“What’s your name?”

“Uhh” The officer’s radio makes a noise, and she steps away to answer it. Eddie takes the opportunity, and quickly sprints over to Bill and hops onto the back of his bike as they ride away laughing together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm putting up the first 5 chapters right now, but will upload daily from now on


	2. Chapter 2

Sunday, 11:25 am

Eddie wakes up the next morning groggy, the light shining in through his yellow curtains, hurting his eyes. He picks up his pants off the floor, searching through the pockets to find his phone. He has a message from his mom and several from Bill.

The message from his mother is the same kind of message she always sends him, a long blurb of text about praising God or something of the sort. This one reading:

_You shall not make for yourself an idol or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the Earth beneath or in the water under the Earth. You shall not worship them or serve them for I the LORD your God am a jealous God visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate me but showing loving kindness to thousands to those love me and keep my commandments!!!!_

He never has any idea what these preaches mean, only that his mother is trying to repent for Eddie. He hasn’t lived at home in several months now, after him and his mother got in an argument about Eddie “going down the wrong path”, as for some reason his mother thought he was gay. That night he went wandering around Derry, somehow finding his way into a bar, completely unaware it was a gay bar. That’s where he met his current roommate Steve. Steve was several years older than him, and was a very flamboyant man, and Eddie thought he took the whole gay thing too far.

He doesn’t reply to his mother, as he never does, and opens the messages from Bill.

_You still have our stash?_

_Call me when you wake up._

_The police found some greens at Max’s place last night and she’s pissed thinks it’s all mine._

Eddie thinks there is a pretty good chance that the weed the police found was theirs, but he can’t let the guys know he lost their stash or else they’ll kill him and never trust him to carry again. He tries to call Bill, but he doesn’t answer. Thanks for being available when you said to call, Bill. So Eddie sends him a quick text

_Answer your phone. Sorry had to hide it at Max’s but it couldn’t have been what the police found I hid it real well. I promise I’ll fix it. Call me._

He isn’t truly sure that the weed that was found wasn’t theirs, but he has to fix this on his own.

Monday, 11:40 am

The four boys are sitting at lunch in the cafeteria together, Ben, Stan, and Bill having a conversation that Eddie has long stopped listening to. His anxiety about finding the weed he lost is eating away at him. Eddie looks across the room, and his breath is taken away. Sitting across the lunch hall is a boy with messy curly black hair, and deep brown eyes hidden behind a thick pair of glasses. His long legs are propped up on the table, as Eddie’s two friends Mike and Max are talking to him. The strange boy seems to only be taking in half of what they say, and Eddie can’t help but stare at the him. He is wearing black skinny jeans with a pair of very worn in vans, along with a white T-shirt, a floral print flannel, and a denim jacket even more worn in than his shoes. Then the boy quickly glances over at Eddie, and his entire body becomes electric, as if the new kid’s eyes alone could jolt Eddie’s heart and make it stop beating. He quickly becomes embarrassed about being caught staring, and glances down at his lap, still feeling burn in his cheeks.

Then his phone goes off, and opens it seeing he has a text from his dad. “Hi Eddie, do you want to have dinner with me on Wednesday? Hugs, dad.”

“I need money for rent. $650” is all he replies.  

Eddie’s Dad has always been a busy man. Him and his mother separated before Eddie could even remember, and the two have grown more distant over the years. His dad tries to talk to him, but Eddie just isn’t really that interested in speaking to him anymore. The only time he really replies to him is when he needs money.  

“I already transferred the money for rent on the 25th” Eddie is reading the reply from his dad when Ben gets his attention.

“Eddie? Do you go down on chicks?” Apparently this is the conversation the three boys decided to have in the middle of lunch. He isn’t sure how to reply; he doesn’t know how to tell his friends he has never been to bring himself to have sex with a girl. Before he can reply, Max and Mike have walked up to the four of them.

“Hi! Have you guys thought about joining student government this year?” Max says. All four of the boys are uncomfortable and awkward, none of them really know how to break it to Max that they aren’t interested in joining any clubs.

“I d-don’t really know” Bill replies.

“We are two of the officers for student government, and we want you guys to join!” She replies, Mike still standing by her side.

“Student government? What does the student government do then” Stan asks, somewhat snappy.

“We make sure there is a good atmosphere at school. We spread love, plan events, organize school activities,” Max states “We have a group meeting next Friday, maybe you’d all like to join?” The four boys say nothing, all glancing around the table at one another, daring each other to speak up.

Stan is the one to eventually speak up “Nah, Friday…?”

“I d-don’t know” Bill continues.

Max seems upset by their response, and is trying to search for a reply. “You guys are in your junior year. Neither an underclassman nor a senior, so you guys should make yourselves known socially to avoid becoming completely anonymous. Do you guys want that? To walk around and be nobody?” Again the boys are at a loss, because none of them really care about not being seen as losers at school. To cut the tension, Eddie tries to change the subject and fix his issue of getting their weed back at the same time.

“Max, have you seen my messages? I forgot my sweater at your place on-”

“Uh, yeah, I did see. I’ll look for it”. He told Max he left his sweater at her place so he could go over there and get their weed back out of the vase he hid it in, so he needed to specifically go over himself.

“No, but… I have to come get it, because I know what it looks like”

“Can’t you just describe it?” Max says confused. Eddie feels like everyone must think he is an idiot, but this is the only way he can think of to get over to Max’s house without letting her know the truth.

“Yeah. I could do that...it’s black…” there is an awkward silence as everyone is confused by this exchange.

“Okay,” Max laughs “a black men’s sweater. Got it. Let us know if you want to join though”. The two friends then walk away from the boys. Judging by the look on Bill’s face, Eddie knows Bill knows wasn’t talking about a sweater.

“A s-sssweater?!” Bill exclaims. Eddie doesn’t make eye contact with him.

“Whats up?” Stan asks. Bill doesn’t say anything, and looks at Eddie indicating that he is the one who has to tell Ben and Stan.

“I had to hide the shit at Max’s place” Eddie says with a sigh.

“Are you kidding?!” Ben replies.

“I’ll fix it!”

“You owe us $150, buddy” says Stan.

“Stan. I’ll fix it” Eddie says sternly, before returning to eating his lunch.


	3. Chapter 3

Wednesday, 12:25 pm

Eddie is in the middle of science class, staring at his teacher’s chest, who lecturing in the front of the room. She is in a white T-shirt with no bra on underneath, and it so obvious that Eddie can see her nipples through her shirt. He is trying to elicit some sort of response in him from looking at the teacher’s boobs, but he just can’t. His mind keeps wandering back to the boy he saw at lunch, the way his long limbs seemed too big for his body, how well he wore the messy look of disheveled hair and torn clothes, and the tightness Eddie felt deep in his chest just from thinking about him. He’d never really experienced something like it before, certainly not with any girl, and it was really beginning to mess with his head. 

Mike sat down next to him, a smug look on his face. “Hi”

“Hi” Eddie replied, being pulled out of his thoughts, pondering why Mike sat down with him.

“I’ve got your drugs” Mike says nonchalantly, taking Eddie aback.

“What?” 

“The stuff you left at Max’s place. I have it” Eddie is so shocked he doesn’t know what to say, and is sure he misheard Mike somehow.

“You - you have it?!”

Mike looks him dead in the eyes with a serious gaze, “If there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s when someone fucks their friends over”

“What do you mean?” 

“Max could’ve gotten in a lot of trouble if they’d found it”

“She could but they didn’t find it”

“They didn’t find it because I took it” Eddie still isn’t exactly sure why Mike helped him out by taking the drugs.

“Okay I’m sorry for having left it there, and thank you for taking it. But I need it. It’s not even mine.”

“I should get a reward for saving it from the police” Eddie is stunned by this, surprised by Mike’s brashness, and why he would want to keep the weed in the first place.

“Do you think this is a fucking Narcos episode or something?! Can’t you just give it to me?”

“I want ten percent of the drugs” Mike asserts, confusing Eddie even more.

“Do you even smoke?” 

“No, but it’s good to have some.”

“And I want you and your friends to join student government. It’s the best club of them all” says Mike, the last part somewhat sarcastically.

Eddie is so shocked by this statement that he is silent for several seconds, surprised that Mike had it in him to play him like this. “Okay, whatever, we can join the student government,” Eddie says with even more annoyance and sarcasm than Mike was displaying. “But then you have to give it me!”

“Yeah”

“So give it to me then” Eddie is starting to get fed up with this debacle.

“Do you think I’m stupid? You’ll get it when I see you and your friends at the group meeting.”

The teacher then talks directly to the two bickering friends. “Eddie and Mike, you can also work together”

“What?” Mike asks “No, I don’t sit here.”

“Can’t you work together with Eddie? It’ll be okay. Black and white people can work together you know, in America we do that.” Mike gets the biggest look of annoyance and disgust Eddie thinks he has ever seen, it’s as if Mike will personally knock each and every one of their teacher’s teeth out. 

Friday, 7:15 pm

Eddie is sitting at the student government meeting, hating every single second of it. None of his friends are there, and he’s worried they aren’t going to show up at all and he’s never going to get their drugs back, so he sends out a group message to the 3 of them.

_Where the fuck are you guys? I’m not going to stay here all by myself. It’s your shit._

Eddie hears an unfamiliar, deep and somewhat raspy voice.

“Hey!” He looks up and it’s him, the guy he saw at lunch the other day. His breathe immediately catches in his throat. This is the first time he has seen him standing up, and he can’t be any shorter than 6’3. Eddies a short guy, so this kid easily has 11 inches on him. 

“Hi!” Max replies to him as the boy walks up to him and Mike, who are standing at the front of the room. “How nice that you wanted to come! Just find yourself a seat, and then we’ll get started” Eddie can’t look away from the lanky kid standing six feet in front of him, and the burning feeling in his cheeks starts to come back. 

“Cool I’m excited” Eddie bites his lip as he walks past him to sit down, catching a whiff of the smell of weed, cigarettes, and cheap body spray as he walks by. Even though none of those things smell good, it’s the most comforting thing Eddie thinks he’s ever smelled. His phone goes off and sees that Bill has finally responded to their group chat.

_So sorry. I had to help my mom with something. I’ll be there as fast as i can._

Then Ben replies soon after.

_Fuck was that today_

“Hey!” Eddie looks up and it’s the last person he was expecting to see. Jane. Fun. “The student government...yay” She says with a lack of pep.

“Yay…” Eddie replies with even less emotion. He’s pretty sure it’s not a coincidence she’s here.

“We looked at the club listings during break and were like, where are the coolest people in this school? And then, the student government, of course” She jokes as Eddie lets out a dry laugh.

“Awesome.”

“Hi! Welcome everyone!” Max shouts, bringing everyone’s attention to her, “we are incredibly happy to have everyone joining us today. This is…”

“Mike” Mike says dryly.

“And I’m Max. ” She begins talking about student government, and all the tasks and responsibilities they have. “We thought it would be best to split you all into groups of two. It’s really important to spread love, and spreading love isn’t something that comes natural for everyone,” she looks right at mike standing next to her ask she says this. “So we thought we would have a “love” exercise. If everyone could just stand up.” 

Eddie rolls his eyes so hard that he thinks he saw the back of his head. He did not want to have to interact with anyone at all, and was only there to get the guys’s stash back, and all of them ditched him, making coming at all pointless. As he stands up, he can feel a pair of eyes burning into the back of his neck, and gets nervous it’s the boy in the worn in clothes. 

Not wanting to participate, Eddie leaves the room quietly and wanders the halls of the school, bored out of his mind, but this is still better than having to do Max’s stupid bonding activities. He eventually decides to go sit in the bathroom and play games on his phone. 

When he finally walks out of the stall, there is another guy standing at the sink washing his hands. The guy. The boy with the mop of black curls, and Eddie’s breath gets so caught in his throat he thought he made need his inhaler. Eddie sees he has a joint tucked behind his ear. The two boys don’t look at each other and wash their hands in silence. The taller boy goes to get paper towels out of the dispenser, but he doesn’t stop pulling them out; he keeps grabbing paper towels until the dispenser is completely empty. Eddie is now just standing there, looking at him in disbelief by his actions.

He finally looks over at Eddie, noticing him looking at the mount of paper towels now sitting in the trash, a look of realization forming on his face about what Eddie is thinking. “Oh, did you also need tissues?” he asks, a slight grin on his face. Eddie continues to be silent, staring in awe at what is happening in front of him. The dark haired boy rummages through the trash, finding the driest and cleanest tissue in the massive pile, handing it to Eddie, who is still silent. He raises his eyebrows at the shorter boy, the small grin having never left his face. He grabs the joint from behind his ear, “Come outside”. He doesn’t ask he Eddie, but moreso says it as a demand. 

Eddie has never had such a jarring first interaction with a person, and is debating whether he should follow him or not. He ends up deciding to, curious as to where this will go. Plus he can’t get the knot out of his stomach that formed the second he walked out of the bathroom stall. 

He is outside sitting on a bench, the joint now lit and sitting in the other boy’s mouth as Eddie sits besides him. He does the same flirtatious eyebrow raise with the same stupid smirk on his face. God, why does he have to be so cute. Eddie thinks to himself. He awkwardly takes the joint as it is handed to him, taking a very small hit off of it. He is scared his asthma is going to act just because of his nerves let alone the smoking, and he doesn’t want to start coughing and embarrass himself in front of a very attractive stranger. 

He is thankful for the weed also, as his nerves are in overdrive by sitting next to this boy. He can hear his own heart pounding, as his hands shake from both the anxiety and the cold. 

“Do you know the group leader lady?” the unknown boy says, assumingly talking about Max.

“Max?” he chuckles, “with the ‘love’ exercise?”

“What was that?”

“I just mean, I had to leave, I just couldn’t deal with that stuff. What happened?”

“She made us walk around and feel each other up in a dark room, and if you touched a dick you had to suck it”

“No?!”

The boy starts to laugh, “No” he simply says as he laughs grower louder, and Eddie joins in the laughter, thinking about the ridiculousness of such a situation. The things this boy says and does just keep shocking Eddie more and more. 

Eventually their laughing stops, and the two sit in silence some more, Eddie feeling the same burning in his face and chest whenever the dark haired boy looks over at him.

Eddie is the one to eventually break the silence. “What grade are you in?”

“Twelfth” Eddie is surprised by this, their school isn’t that large so he figured he would have noticed someone as stunning as him by now.

“But...you didn’t go to Derry last year?”

“No, Hawkins.”

“You transferred your final year?”

Before the boy can reply, Jane comes out of nowhere and walks up to them. “So this is where you are.”

“Hi” Eddie replies, the smirk on the other boy’s face has grown even more, as if he is thinking of something snarky to do.

“We’re in the process of grouping up and we’ll have to be in pairs. And I don’t really know a lot of people, so I was wondering if you wanted to pair up with me?”

The tall boy speaks up before Eddie can get a word “I thought we were in a group together?” he the bumps his shoulder into Eddie, and it’s as if a wave of electricity shoots through his body from the spot the boy brushed up against.

“Yeah, i had kind of agreed to be in a group together with…” oh no, Eddie still doesn’t know this guy’s name. He begins coughing, dictating that the boy should tell Jane his name himself. 

“Richie” Richie. That’s his name. For some reason, it’s the best name Eddie thinks he’s ever heard in his life. Richie extends his hand to shake Janes as she introduces herself.

“I’m sure we could be three?” Jane asks hopeful. Neither boys say anything, not understanding why Jane hasn’t taken the hint that Eddie doesn’t want to work with her, and Richie comes to his rescue once again.

“I think she said to be in pairs, but, I don’t care” Eddie thought he was going to support him in being just a pair, and he guesses he is going to have to sort it out on his own.

“It did seem like Max was really clear on it having to be in pairs” when he sees the look on Jane’s face, he knows she isn’t going to back down from this easily. “But... we could just ask.”

“Yeah, okay, we’ll do that then” Jane replies.

“I’m sure it’ll be okay” She then shoves herself on the bench besides Eddie, making it now far too crammed with all three of them. The atmosphere is very tense, as it is evident that Eddie does not want her there, and Richie may not either. On the bright side, Eddie was now pressed against Richie, causing his entire body to tingle.


	4. Chapter 4

Sunday, 11:11 am

Eddie was sitting on his bed with his roommate Steve, who lying on the edge of it, music playing subtly in the room. He pulled up instagram, typing “Richie” into the search bar, scrolling through looking for the boy he met last night. Meanwhile Steve is on Grindr, messaging some guy about hooking up. 

“Look at this guy” Steve says as he leans up to show Eddie his phone. “Do you think he’s handsome?” Eddie only glances at the photo, seeing that the guy is alright looking, but why would Eddie know if he’s handsome or not, he’s not gay. 

“I don’t fucking know, i mean he’s _probably_ handsome.”

“Eddie, you can’t say a guy is handsome without being gay.” Steve says, and Eddie isn’t sure if he should be taking it seriously or not. 

“I said that he’s probably handsome!” Eddie says, offended by being assumed gay.

“We’re gonna meet up”

“Okay so you need my confirmation that he’s handsome to meet up with him?”

“He’s saying he’s not gay, but that he likes to suck cock for fun. Buddy, I give you one year, then you’ll be out of the closet.” Eddie can’t help but feel this is directed at him somehow. 

“Steve, do you think every guy out there is gay?”

“I don’t think every guy is gay Eddie, but I have a pretty good gaydar.”

“Okay, so how does the gaydar work? What is it that makes, I mean what are like the characteristics for a gay guy?”

“One clue, for example, if you start talking to random guys about blow jobs.” Both are silent for a few seconds. “And you’re a little suspicious when you have a Grindr profile”. Steve’s phone starts to buzz, then he excuses himself, leaving Eddie’s room to answer the call.

Eddie is left lying in his bed, thinking about what Steve had said about signs of being gay. Eddie had made a Grindr before, but he was only curious, wondering what it was like to just have a dating app in general. That didn’t make him gay, did it?

Monday, 8:10 am

Eddie is walking to his next class when he sees the sign up sheet for student government. _It must have Richie’s full name on it_ , he thinks. He then starts to frantically scan the list, finally finding the name “Richie Tozier” at the bottom. Tozier. Now he knows his full name, and can hopefully find him on some social media later. He had to find out more about this boy. 

He walks into the classroom, sitting at his usual seat in the very back corner, pulling out his laptop. He opens up facebook, putting Richie’s full name into the search bar, but still comes up with nothing. Now desperate, he opens up Google and searches for Richie directly on there. The first link is to a website Eddie doesn’t know, and there is a video titled “Interview with: Richie Tozier”. A boy Eddie doesn’t recognize is filming himself. The boy has curly brown hair, and is wearing a hat. He appears to be missing several, or most of, his teeth.

“Yooo, what’s up guys? Today, I’m going to talk to my best buddy, Richie.” Richie is now in focus as the other boy films him.

“Can you tell me about your movie” The toothless boy asks. Richie is standing in front of a box, which is set up similar to a movie set, containing furniture and props. There are several dolls, assumingly supposed to be the characters in the “movie.”

“The movie is about Captain America and Vladimir Putin falling in love with one another. But they can’t be together because Sarah Palin has cursed them. So every time they kiss, a kitten dies of AIDS.” The two boys in the video laugh with one another. Eddie can’t stop smiling, seeing Richie and hearing him make up more ridiculous stories fills him with joy. 

“Holy shit...that’s rough. Who's the barbie? Is it Sarah Palin?”

“No, she’s just barbie. You always need to include a hot chick.”

“Yeah, I agree.”

“Sarah Palin can be considered a hot chick.” They start to laugh again.

“Bro, who’s your favorite director?”

“Baz Luhrmann” Eddie has no idea who that is.

“Seriously?”

“Seriously.”

“Are you kidding me?”

“No, I’m not kidding you.”

“Baz Luhrmann?”

“Why are you so sceptical?”

“He only makes tacky cliche movies man, where the main characters die and stuff.” Richie overexaggerates how offended he was by his friends word, gasping loudly. 

“He makes epic love stories, man.”

“Ew…”

“The main characters have to die or else the love story won’t be epic.”

“You’re gonna get a D, you know bro.”

“What the fuck is up with you, you’re so r-”

“Hey” Mike had just sat down next to Eddie, and he quickly shuts his laptop so his friend can’t see what he was watching, giving Mike a puzzled look. 

“Do you have my stuff?” Eddie asserts.

“What stuff?”

“What stuff…?” He sasses at him.

“I thought you said it wasn’t yours?” Eddie can’t believe he still has to have this argument.

“Can you just give it to me?”

Mike smacks his lips. “I didn’t see your friends at the student government meeting.” Eddie would have gladly have his friends there if he could, it’s not as if he didn’t try.

“I can’t exactly make them attend though, can I?!”

“‘Control your hoes’ is all I’m saying.”

“Mike, I’m not going to do this anymore.”

“No, neither am I. Where do you want it?”

“You have it?” Mike nods. Eddie zips open his backpack, as Mike quickly takes the baggy of weed out of his back and shoves it into Eddie’s just as class is about to start. His mind wanders back to the video of Richie. Why would Richie make up a story about two guys, even if it was obviously ridiculous? Could be possibly be gay? He also really liked cliche romance movies, which Eddie knew was a feminine stereotype. But Richie was also talking about having a hot chick in a film, so the entire thing was probably just for jokes anyway. Eddie was just making large assumptions based off a stupid film. 

Wednesday, 11:16 am

Eddie is walking in the courtyard outside school, looking to find Max somewhere. He can’t find Richie on any social media and has no way to contact him, and needs to talk to and find out more about him. He hasn’t seen him around school at all either. His last chance he has of seeing Richie again is at the student government events. Once he finds Max, he hurries and walks up to her.

“Max!”

“Hey!’

“Are there going to be any more student government meetings?”

“How incredibly nice that you’re engaging! We won’t be having any more group meetings this week but next week we are organizing a party, and we will be having a group pregame. Perhaps you could host it?” This was not the conversation Eddie thought he was going to have with Max, as he doesn’t understand why he needs to host the pregame in the first place.

“Um, why?”

“Because my house was completely trashed, and Mike’s parents are Muslim. But you can host it!”

Eddie doesn’t know how to tell Max that he only wanted to go to the meeting to see Richie, and has no interest in being an active member of the student government. Just then, Bill walks up to the pair of them.

“W-whats up?” Bill asks.

“Eddie will be hosting a group pregame before the party the student government is planning next Friday, maybe you guys want to join?” Max says as Ben and Stan walk up to the group of them. The four boys are just as uncomfortable as any time Max has talked to them about student government.

“What the fuck are you hosting?” Ben asks through a small laugh.

“Why are you all laughing like that? Do you think school clubs stupid?” asks Max, a sour look on her face. “I mean being active at school will lay the social foundation you have at school. It’s where classes, and ages, and grades, and races, and sexual orientation...” 

Eddie stops listening to what Max has to say because he spots a familiar boy walking across the courtyard. Richie. It’s as if time slows town for the short boy as he watches Richie walk towards the school building. He has his hands tucked in his pockets, cigarette tucked behind his ear, head held high. Richie glances in Eddie’s direction, and he swears he’s looking right at him. That quick look alone is enough to make Eddie feel like he’s going to be knocked off his feet. Richie sits down against the building next to two other guys, taking the cigarette from behind his ear and lighting it. Eddie is so transfixed by the lanky boy that he doesn’t notice Jane walk up to him.

“Hi! Did you get my message” Jane asks, pulling Eddie back to reality.

His mind is still so focused on Richie he can barely form words or think clearly. “Uhh, I’m sorry. No I didn’t.” He probably had gotten the message, but there was no way he was going to remember it in this moment.

“It’s just that we’re hosting a pregame on Friday,” Max looks upset by this, probably upset that Jane is going to host something the same night student government was supposed to. “And so we were wondering if you guys wanted to join.” Everyone looks at Eddie, waiting for his response. He knows his friends want him to go to Jane’s, since they want him to get with Jane, and they probably also want to sleep with her friends as well. Max is obviously upset, giving Eddie a begging look to say no to her. Ultimately, Eddie doesn’t want anything to do with Jane.

“Uh, Friday, I don’t know. I think-”

“Eddie has brain damage. We’ll all be there.” Stan interrupts. Jane looks at Eddie and smiles, while he just stares at the ground.

“Okay, cool. Awesome, I’ll text you.” Jane says with a grin on her face as she walks away.

Bill, Ben, and Stan all look upset with how Eddie responded. “What the fuck is up with you? Are you freaking gay?” Stan says, sounding pissed off. There it is again. People thinking he’s gay. And Eddie’s not sure if he is or not anymore thanks to one Richie Tozier.


	5. Chapter 5

Friday, 1:01 am

Eddie was lying in bed, watching that video he found of Richie over and over again. He can’t help it; he can’t stop wanting to look at Richie no matter what he does. It’s like he doesn’t leave his head. Starting to get sick of watching the same 5 minute video over and over, he looks up the director Richie said he loved, Baz Lurhmann. He clicks on the man’s wikipedia, seeing his most popular movie is the 1996 adaptation of _Romeo and Juliet_. Since Eddie has never seen it before, he decides to watch it, seeing if it’s as epic as Richie thinks it is.

The entire time he’s watching it, he can’t even take in the movie to decide if he likes it himself; the only thing he can think about is what Richie must think watching the movie, how Richie reacted to the scene of Romeo and Juliet kissing in the pool, or lying in bed with one another, or when each of them tragically died. He tries searching for the boy on Facebook again, still finding nothing.

Steve’s words from the other day come popping back into his head, _“And you’re a little suspicious when you have a Grindr profile.”_ Maybe if Eddie downloaded Grindr again, it would help him figure out if he was gay or not, but immediately regrets the decision. Right away, he starts getting messages from guys, all in a matter of seconds.

_Horny?_

_Hi. Top or btm?_

_Is your cock thick?_

_Do you squirt a lot?_

_I’ll let you fuck and come in my ass._

Getting sick of such vulgar messages, Eddie puts his phone down. If this is how gay guys acted, then he definitely wasn’t gay.

Friday, 3:30 pm

School had just gotten out for the day, and Eddie was walking from campus with his three friends, talking about the party they are going to tonight.

“You owe me d-drinks.” Bill says, directed at Eddie, and he honestly has no idea what Bill’s talking about. “At th-that party one we went t-to, i g-gave you almost an ent-tire six pack.”

“You’re the one who owes me. Do you remember in May? I gave you like three beers at a party.”

“Th-that’s ages ago!”

“Yeah, whatever.” Eddie knows he’s going to lose this argument.

“But s-since May, at this one party you d-didn’t have shit and i h-had a six pack, and so i g-gave you almost the e-entire fucking six pack, which went over what you’d already g-given me.”

“Okay, I’ll get beer. I’m sure Steve will buy for us. See you later guys.”

“Send us a message though, about when we’ll need to be there.” Ben says, as the four start to go their separate ways to head home.

Eddie walks to the nearby bus stop; he lives too far to walk home. He pulls out his phone to text Steve so he can ask him about buying their alcohol.

_Are you home and can you buy me beer?_

The bus arrives and Eddie gets on, still waiting for a reply from his roommate.

_Sorry, I work until 9_

Now Eddie has no idea how to get beer for tonight.

“Hi.”

He looks up, and standing in front of him about a head higher is no other than Richie Tozier. Eddie immediately feels all the moisture suck out of his throat as it dries up, and his eyes bug out of his head. He was not prepared to run into the curly haired boy anytime soon.

“Hi” Eddie replies shyly. He looks around the bus at anywhere but Richie, not knowing if he will be able to make eye contact without his knees buckling in.

“On your way home?”

“Yeah, you too?”

“Yeah.” Neither of them know what to say, and give each other awkward glances and smiles before Richie speaks up. “Awesome conversation though” he chuckles. Eddie gives a weak smile and laugh, still unable to talk or properly look at the boy. How can Eddie talk when he’s using all his energy to not have an asthma attack from standing less than a foot from _the_ Richie Tozier.

His mind goes back to what he was supposed to be doing in the first place, finding beer. “You wouldn’t happen to have a fake ID would you?” Eddie figures Richie was the kind of guy to have one.

“Why, yes I do my good sir.” Richie replies over-exaggeratedly.

“Could you possibly buy me some beer?”

Once the two get to the store, Eddie is standing outside sitting on his phone when Richie finally walks out, surprisingly empty handed.

“I managed to forget my ID, I need to go home and get it. Join me” he says, once again not asking Eddie to come with him, but somewhat demanding. Richie then walks past Eddie, presuming he will follow behind him.

As they walk to Richie’s apartment, all Eddie can think about is how odd and captivating this boy is. He seems to carry so much confidence and chillness in an amount Eddie has never seen before. The way he walks seems to command that he may not be able to take you in a fight, but he could easily tear you to pieces with his words, as a hint of smugness never seems to leave his face. And it made Eddie’s insides go wild, his brain buzzing, his hands sweaty, and every one of his nerves somehow more numb and more sensitive at the same time.

They finally reach Richie’s place, him calling out to see if anyone else is home, and no one replies. “Awesome.” Richie says under his breath. He begins rummaging through his room, looking for his forgotten ID. “I don’t get where I might’ve put it.”

Eddie starts to look around his room, seeing he has two guitars hanging off the wall. His closet door is covered in drawings, but one was just a simple thing of text saying _Everything Is Love_. “Did you draw these?”

“Yeah.”

“They’re good.”

“Thanks.” Eddie continues to study the multiple drawings. “Found my ID.”

“Did you?”

“No, but…” Eddie looks over and Richie is holding up a joint, and the two sit on Richie’s window sill to smoke it, starting a casual conversation.

“What music do you listen to, if you listen to music.” Richie asks Eddie.

“I’m a pretty big fan of NWA, but-”

“That’s what you listen to before school to get you hyped?”

“It’s like, the kind of music you listen to when you want to walk around and feel cool.”

“Have you listened to Nas?”

“Nas?”

“Are you kidding? You haven’t checked him out?”

“If I’ve listened to him? I’ve listened to him...”

“Have you ever listened to him Eds?” Richie starts to laugh.

“Yeah i have! And don’t call me Eds!”

“It doesn’t sound like you have Eds,” Richie starts laughing more. “We’ll listen to him later.”

They sit there on Richie’s window sill for what feels like hours, smoking and laughing about whatever the two bring up. Sitting face to face with Richie shows Eddie just how beautiful his eyes are. They’re a deep brown with subtle flecks of amber, and he could get lost in them for days.

Eddie doesn’t think he’s felt this content in a very long time, even though he is just sitting and smoking with a boy he’s barely met. It’s more fun than he thinks he’s ever had at some stupid party, where he has to watch drunk guys and girls fondle each other in the middle of a packed house with their tongues down each others throats. Being with Richie made him happy, it made him relaxed, as if this is where he was always supposed to be.

After smoking for a while, they get hungry and end up in the kitchen, making mac and cheese. Eddie is sitting on the counter, and Richie is preparing the pasta. Richie is facing away from Eddie as he rummages through his fridge, trying to find the something, and Eddie takes the opportunity to get a really good look at him. His hair is significantly more disheveled than normal, his denim jacket discarded, showing his entire arms. They’re not very toned, but he makes up for it by having shoulders about a mile wide, the floral button up he has on only accentuating this. His black jeans are just as worn in as the rest of his attire, the pockets slightly torn, showing a pack of cigarettes tucked into one of them. All of his limbs are exceedingly long, causing him to look even taller than he already is. And Eddie thinks he’s the most beautiful man he’s ever laid eyes on.

When Richie turns back around, he reaches out his hand to Eddie, holding a bottle. “Beer?”

“Cheers” Eddie says, before both boys take large drinks from each of their drinks.

“So,” Richie returns to making their food, “Do you wanna spice it up a little my Eddie Spaghetti? Let’s start with some Caribbean Jerk BBQ. That’ll go great with some mac n cheese won’t it.”

“Caribbean Jerk, sounds perrrrfect.” Eddie jokes, but Richie puts the spice mix in the pasta anyway. “And don’t call me Eddie Spaghetti either, that’s worse than Eds” Richie jokingly rolls his eyes, dictating he’s probably not going to stop.

“Chili? Rosemary? How about some icelandic spice that I have for some reason?”

“Put them all in.” Eddie is far too high and love struck by Richie to even care about the pasta right now. His phone goes off, and sees he has several messages from Bill.

_When should we be at Jane’s_  
_Did you get the beer?_  
 _Answer me._

He also has a couple messages from Jane.

_Hi we’ll start around 7_  
_My friend lives on 4th street, just call her when you’re outside of the 7-eleven, and we’ll come downstairs and meet you_  
 _When will you be here?_  
 _Also, my friends were wondering if you could bring some of that stuff you gave me in the bathroom at that party. If it’s not too much trouble._

Those pills? Did Jane really not realize those were gazebos?

Eddie should probably leave Richie’s and go to Jane’s party. He did tell everyone he was going after all, and-

“Cinnamon?” Oh yeah. He’s here with Richie. He looks back at Richie who is looking right at him, and seeing his mess of a head of hair and dark brown eyes hidden behind his coke bottle glasses, Eddie knows there is no way he’s going to ruin his time with Richie and leave early, even if it meant upsetting his friends. At this point, he didn’t care all that much if it meant he could be around Richie a little bit longer.

“Yeah, fuck it.” The two boys laugh together, reminding Eddie he is happier here, having a lazy evening making food with Richie, then he would be at some stupid party with a girl he doesn’t even like.

_Sorry, Jane and her friends cancelled the pregame, sooooo i think I’ll just stay home and chill_

He replies to Bill, then replies to Jane next.

_Sorry, we’d forgotten we had some other stuff going on, but we’ll join next time_

There is no way everyone isn’t going to find out he’s lying, and for once, Eddie couldn’t care less about it. Being around Richie did that to him; it made him feel as if all that mattered was Richie.

After some time, the mac and cheese finishes, and the two boys are sitting on the floor next to one another eating it.

“There’s something not quite right with it.” Richie says with a disgusted but amused expression.

“It’s absolutely terrible.” It is probably the worst thing Eddie’s ever eaten in his life.

“It’s so bad, it’s kind of good.”

“No. It was just bad.”

“Well excuse me Eds, you were the one who wanted to put in all those spices.” Richie looks at him, smug.

“It’s really important to have lots of black pepper.”

“Hm, that’s the trick? Lots of black pepper.” The two boys laugh softly. “Have you heard rumors about my rapping?”

“I haven’t.”

“Give me a beat.” Richie clears his throat. “E-Box, gimme the beat!” Richie says with a fake deep and loud voice. Eddie can’t help but look in wonder at the idiotic boy. Eddie tries his best to keep up a steady beat, but has never done this before in his life and keeps laughing and messing up. “Come on!” Richie shouts pretending to be serious “Get it together!” The two start laughing harder than they had that entire night when the doorbell rings.

“Oh fuck, what time is it?” Richie asks.

“Ten to eight.”

“I invited some friends to a pregame, but you’re welcome to stay, I have a lot of beer.” He gets up to walk into the other room to answer the door. Eddie upset by this, he really wanted to just be alone with Richie. His phone pings, and he sees that Stan has messaged him.

_Why are you lying?! We’ve spoken with Jane and her friends_

Eddie figured his friends would have this sort of response. He stands up, preparing himself to meet some of Richie’s friends. They all introduce themselves, and the only person left is a girl with short red hair. Richie wraps his arm the girl’s waist.

“And this is Beverly. My girlfriend.” Richie says before the two start making out in front of him as Eddie’s heart drops all the way to his feet.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this chapter isn't very exciting, but tomorrow's chapter will make up for it. It's literally the part that made me want this fic in the first place so I'm super excited

Saturday, 1:30 pm

Eddie was sitting outside on a bench in a basketball court waiting to meet up with the guys and is reading the messages he got from Jane the previous night.

Received From Jane, FRI 9:35pm  
Hi. I just wanted to say that we have spoken with your friends and know that you didn’t have any other plans. If you’re not interested that’s okay. But you don’t need to give me false hope and say you’ll come to a pregame when you don’t, that’s pretty asshole-y

Received From Jane, FRI 10:01pm  
Hello?! It’s so incredibly rude not to answer!?!!

Received From Jane, FRI 10:18pm  
Sorry for calling you an asshole. You might’ve had a good reason but could you answer?

Received From Jane, FRI 10:30pm  
ASSHOLE!

He had yet to reply to Jane, he honestly had no idea what to say. His friends were mad at him for not going to the party and lying to them. Jane was mad at him for leading her on. And Richie had a god damn girlfriend, so all of it was really for nothing. At least it felt like that. While he is sitting thinking of a reply, Bill and Stan walk up to him, and the three of them greet one another.

“That was really shitty of you” Stan comments about Eddie’s behavior the night before, “Just betraying us, what’s up with that?”

“I’m sorry, but uh,” he has no idea how to get himself out of this one, “it was just, uh, really stressful-”

“Stress? What do you mean stress?” 

“I’ll fix up a new pregame, okay?”

:Yeah, but what k-kind of s-stress” Bill interject. Both Stan and Bill stare at Eddie, waiting for an explanation that Eddie doesn’t have.

“Just...it was some stuff with my mom, okay?” Stan and Bill are both confused, as this seems to come out of nowhere.

“With your mom? Whats up with her?” Stan asks, concerned. Eddie has to search for another thing to say, as he is making this all up on the spot.

“She’s stressed out.”

‘She’s stressed out? My mom’s been stressed since I came into this world up until this very day, and you’re talking about stress?” 

“How is sh-she?” Bill asks, not quite sure if he should believe what Eddie is saying or not.

“She’s okay.” Eddie hasn’t made eye contact with either of them throughout the entire conversation. Stan and Bill look at each other, sending a message that something is wrong with Eddie and they should be worried but should also stop pressing the matter.

“Just fix us a new pregame with the girls. Case closed.” Stan says, trying to end the conversation.

“Case closed.”

Monday, 3:03 am

Eddie’s lying awake in bed; he hasn’t been able to sleep all night. He has so much on his mind; his friends, Jane, his parents, and Richie. Especially Richie. Knowing he isn’t going to fall asleep anytime soon, he opened up his phone, reading the last sermon his mother had sent him.

But you were washed!!!!, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God

Then he decides to get out his laptop, and starts scrolling through facebook until he sees a selfie Jane posted of herself. Eddie can’t help thinking about why he wasn’t attracted to her. She was a beautiful girl, but Eddie just couldn’t feel anything for her, physically or mentally. Nothing like he did with Richie. God Richie made Eddie’s stomach do somersaults. The way his hair bounced when he laughed, how his nose scrunched up when he smiled, the way he looked at Eddie with a sense of fondness. The things he thought about doing to Richie, he wanted more than anything to lean up and kiss Richie, knotting his hands into Richie’s hair as Richie’s hands are running along his back. This is the first time in Eddie’s life he’s had strong sexual thoughts about anyone. 

Eddie really did not want to be gay, he didn’t want to be lumped in with over feminine men like Steve who took the gay thing too far. He looks up a test online to see if you’re gay, and one comes up called The Gay Test: A fiercely fabulous test of your heterosexuality. He knows this is probably a joke, but Eddie’s so desperate to understand the feelings he’s having that he takes it.

Question 1)  
I paid ___ for my last haircut  
Over $40  
$25 to $40  
$10 to $25  
Under $10

Eddie doesn’t even pay for haircuts, he just has Steve do it for him, so he answers D.

Question 2)  
Who makes the best messenger bag for men?  
Prada  
Cole Haan  
Timbuck 2  
What’s a messenger bag?

Eddie honestly has no idea what a messenger bag is. He used to wear a fanny pack for all his meds, but that was it, so he answers D again. He continues on with the 20 question test, answering C or D for most of the questions.

You are 20% gay: You’re definitely not gay, but you could be a little straighter if ya know what I mean darling. 

That helped just about as much as Eddie thought it would; not at all.

Monday, 11:53 am

Eddie is at his locker, getting his textbooks out for his next class. As he’s trying to close the locker door, Max walks up to him.

“Hi! I’m going to send out the invites soon, so I wanted to ask you if we could have the pregame a little earlier?” After everything that’s been going on this week, the last thing Eddie wants to do is host a pregame for stupid student government.

“No, I’m not hosting the pregame.”

“Why not?” As per usual as of lately, Eddie has no real reason for saying no to people.

“I can’t because I live with other people, and they aren’t interested in hosting a pregame.”

“But I talked to Steve, and he said it was completely fine,” Max looks really upset with him over lying about this. “You’ll host on Friday at six.” she asserts before storming away. 

Across the hall, Eddie sees Jane standing at her locker. He needs to get over Richie because even if he wanted to be with him, he had a girlfriend. He was straight. The best way to get over Richie was to try to be with Jane, so he needs to get on good terms with her again. So, he walks over to her locker, standing beside her without her noticing.

“Hi.” He says, bringing Jane’s attention to him for the first time. She looks back at him and throwing him daggers, obviously still really upset with him. Eddie quickly moves his gaze away from her and towards the floor. “Shit” he mumbles under his breath, realizing that fixing things with Jane is going to be harder than he thought. The best way to get her back was to stop with the excuses, and just own up and apologize.

“Hey I was wondering, I need some advice so to speak, cause there’s this really cute sophomore girl, and I’ve managed to piss her off. She has every reason to be, cause I fucked up a promise I’d made and that wasn’t nice. So, what I was wondering is do you think I should go shoot myself,” grins start to form on both their faces. “Or maybe she’ll forgive me? It’s okay if she does in like 20 years, but as long as she does at some point.”

“Idiot...” Jane says quietly, now smiling.

“Am I an idiot? You think I’m an idiot?! Fuck, then there are two girls who think I’m an idiot. Both the cute one, and then you.” Jane is still smiling as she starts to walk away from her locker, giving a look to Eddie showing he still isn’t fully forgiven. “Did you try to kill me with a look just now? Am I really that much of an idiot? Do you think so?” He catches up to Jane as the two walk off to class.

Wednesday, 1:43 pm

Eddie, Bill, Stan, and Ben are watching the school’s female dancers rehearse their dance routine. Eddie’s three friends are staring at the girls with deep fondness, amazed that they get to sit there and watch a dozen beautiful girls move their bodies in such an enticing way. Meanwhile Eddie is sitting there bewildered by the girls and trying to make himself feel the same way all his friends are, understand what they’re feeling. But just like always, he can’t. 

Once they finish their routine, their dance instructor starts talking to them about plans for their next rehearsal. He has a stereotypical feminine gay voice and stature, Eddie taking notice of this.

“Shows over boys.” He says to the four of them before leaving the room along with all of the girls.

“Good job. Really good job, wow.” Ben says while clapping, even though they all had left.

“Does that guy really need to be that gay?” Eddie says to Bill, vile in his voice.

‘What?”

“Didn’t you notice? He’s like ultra gay.”

“W-what’s up with you d-dissing people for being g-gay” Bill says, extremely agitated with Eddie’s intolerance.

“I’m not dissing him, but it was really obvious.”

“Yeah, b-but you’re j-just pointing out that h-he’s g-gay. Really g-good observation, Eddie.” he says, sounding disappointed in his friend.

‘What’s up with you today?”

“W-with me?”

“Yeah, you’ve been super pissed.”

“What?! Me?!”

“Yeah.”

“You’re the one w-who’s b-been super s-snotty about everything!”

“Snotty?!”

“Yeah! Even when we g-got into the classroom you w-were all-”

“Hi” All four boys look up, and Richie had walked up to them. “You forgot this on Friday.” Richie says as he throws a hat at Eddie. Eddie looks back at him, a stone cold expression. Seeing Richie hurts him now, knowing he is with Beverly. Richie looks at all four of the boys, confused as to why no one has replied to him. “It’s yours right?” Bill, Stan, and Ben have no idea what’s going on; they’ve never met Richie, and they also have no idea what Eddie was doing last Friday night.

“Forgot where?” Stan asks, breaking the silence. Eddie looks up at Richie, hopefully showing in his face that he doesn’t want his friends to know where he was.

“In the cafeteria.” Richie answers before walking away. All four boys are dumbfounded as to what just happened.

“Who’s th-that guy?” Bill asks.

“That guy? He’s just some nerd from Max’s club.” Before he can be questioned more, Ben starts talking about a dream he had the night before, ending the awkward tension between the boys.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter got me fucked up

Friday, 7:20 pm

The pregame had just gotten started at Eddie’s apartment. The party was glow in the dark themed; everyone was covered in neon paint and the room was flooded in blacklight. Eddie was currently sitting on a couch with Jane having a casual conversation.

“What kind of music do you like?” Eddie asks her.

“That’s a hard one, my favorite kind of music is...Justin Bieber.” Eddie sighs as he puts his face in his hand. This conversation went so much different with Richie. Eddie was trying so hard to like Jane as much as he likes Richie, but it just never seemed to work. And each time she opened her mouth it just got harder and harder.

“Oh my God.”

“Is that bad?”

“I think I got a headache.”

“You got a migraine from Justin Bieber?”

“I think I’ll just leave. No wait I can’t leave, I live here. Maybe I’ll have you leave.” Eddie jokes, but he honestly wishes he could make Jane leave.

“You’re throwing me out because I like him?” she chuckles, “Come up with someone better yourself then? What kind of music do you like?”

“I’m a little more into 90’s hip hop and stuff. Do you know anything about that?”

“No, I don’t know anything about that.” Richie does.

“You don’t know anything about that?”

“I don’t know, ask me about it, maybe I can think of something I like.”

“Nas? Have you heard of him?”

“What?” Richie has heard of him. He’s the one who told Eddie about him.

“He made the best album of all time, ‘Illmatic’. Listen to it.” Eddie hears Max loudly greeting someone by the door and he looks over seeing that Richie had just gotten there with Beverly. While he was staring, Jane was trying to talk to him something, and grabbed his hand. She was guiding his hand to under her breast, having Eddie feel the underwire of her bra.

“Can you feel the underwire, right there?” This was a very weak attempt to try to get Eddie aroused.

“Yeah.”

“It’s poking me under my arm, it’s going to be like that until I get home and I can take it off.” Once she lets go of Eddie’s hand, he goes back to looking off in Richie’s direction. Richie looks over at him, the two of them making eye contact, and Eddie feels his whole body go warm, just like every time he’s around Richie. But he has to get over him, he was with Beverly. He took a large swig from the beer in his hand, then leans into Jane pressing his lips against hers.

After only a few seconds, Richie sits down on the opposite side of Jane, plopping down with a large sigh. “I think you guys are bonding a little too much over here.”

“Richie! Hey!” Jane exclaims before hugging him. Eddie becomes very uncomfortable, being around Richie was the last thing he wanted to do tonight.

“I thought we were a team?” Richie teases.

“Oh yeah, in student government.” Jane says, shaking Eddie’s shoulder, trying to get him in a better mood as he was visibly upset. Even though Eddie is looking at the floor, he gets a familiar hot feeling in his cheeks, the one he only gets when Richie is staring right at him.

“It’s nice here in a shared apartment, there are always cool people here such as Steve.” She says, point across the room at Eddie’s roommate. Steve is wearing a hot pink wig, dancing harder than anyone else in the middle of the dance floor. “Have you met Steve?” she asks Richie.

“I don’t think so.”

“He’s gay! He’s super sweet. I love gay people, they’re hilarious.”

“You don’t think that’s a bit of a superficial generalization.” Snaps Richie, peaking Eddie’s interest in the conversation, not only to hear what both Richie and Jane think of gay people, but to also maybe give him hope that Richie isn’t actually straight.

“To say that I love gay people because they’re hilarious?”

“Yeah, it’s like saying all Muslims are terrorists.”

“That’s a bit too much, it’s not the same. To be hilarious is insanely positive, to be a terrorist is super negative,” Eddie looks very annoyed and surprised by Jane’s remarks, and Richie is making a similar expression as well. This may be the most serious he’s ever seen Richie.

“I mean, it’s not about what you say, it’s the fact that you’re generalizing.”

“But still-”

“Not all gay people are funny.” Trying to get out of this conversation, Jane quickly stands up.

“This is really boring, Eddie. Come dance with me.” Richie and Eddie share a look, saying that both of them are unhappy with what Jane said about gay people.

Eventually, everyone is up and dancing, Eddie with Jane, and Richie with Beverly. _Call Your Girlfriend_ by Robyn is playing in the background. Eddie looks over, seeing that Richie and his girlfriend are kissing each other deeply on the other side of the room, so he immediately leans in to do the same with Jane, but he’s failing at keeping his eyes closed. He’s staring at Richie while halfheartedly kissing Jane, feeling no emotion from it.

He thinks about what it’d be like to kiss Richie, to be the one with Richie’s hands tugging his hips closer instead of Beverly’s. He want’s Richie’s tongue down his throat, Richie smiling against his lips as he kisses him, running his hands through Richie’s hair. Just _thinking_ about this fills his body with more heat and sparks than kissing Jane ever has.

As he’s thinking this and staring right at Richie, Richie opens his eyes, looking directly at Eddie. His eyes are so dark and filled with lust, saying a million things with his gaze. It’s as if he’s telling Eddie he’s thinking of kissing and touching Eddie rather than Beverly, as if wishes he could walk over and push Jane away from Eddie so he can grab Eddie’s neck and pull his face towards his own. Eddie’s so shocked by this that he completely freezes, his mind turning to static waves as the two boys stare directly into each other’s eyes. It feels like they are in this position for hours, but it truly only lasts a handful of seconds before Richie looks away as the atmosphere returns to normal.

Later after the pregame, Max is directing everyone out of Eddie’s apartment, exclaiming that there are taxis waiting out front for them. As Eddie’s picking up trash, he looks over by the door and sees that Richie is staring at him again, the same smug look on his face that is always there, but this time there is something deeper in his expression.

“Me, Beverly, and Richie are going to take a cab together, do you want to join?” Jane asks him.

“No, I’m taking my bike.” The truth is, Eddie didn’t want to go to the party at all, he didn’t even want to have this pregame, so he was just going to stay home and clean.

“Yeah, okay!.” She says, walking back to the door, standing by Richie and Beverly.

A few minutes later Eddie is in the kitchen, dumping the still remaining beer out of the dozens of cans left strewn around his apartment. He hears the door close, signaling that everyone has probably left. Eddie turns around, seeing that Richie still hasn’t left, and he is walking up to the counter to help Eddie clean up.

“Didn’t you take a cab with the others?”

“I have a bike.” The burn in Eddie’s cheeks comes back as he’s staring down at the ground, a habit he has picked up whenever he is around Richie. “Good times with, uh, Jane?” He says, turning to directly face Eddie, who still won’t make eye contact with him.

“She’s keen.”

“You know that Beverly and I have been dating since we were like 15 or something.” Eddie is pretty sure that this is Richie’s way of telling him that nothing is going to happen between them.

“Okay.” Eddie’s trying to make it clear that he doesn’t want to have this conversation.

“And I can tell we’re drifting further and further apart, but I can’t dump Bev.” Maybe Eddie was wrong and he was trying to tell Eddie that he _could_ be with him.

“Okay?”

“‘Cause if I dump Beverly, she’ll think I’m doing it because of her aluminum leg.” Eddie is taken aback by this, not able to believe that that’s true, but Richie is talking in such a serious done that Eddie can’t see why he would be lying.

“Hmm?”

“You didn’t know?’

“Aluminum leg?”

“Yeah, her entire food is amputated.”

“What?! How did that happen?”

“She stepped on a landmine in Nevada when she was nine years old. Blew off her entire left foot.”

“Shit…”

“Yeah, it was pretty bad.”

“Yeah, I didn’t know that.”

“But she’s doing better. She’s gotten a lot of help from, uh,” Richie starts to trip over his words, as if holding back a laugh, “what’s it called? Physiotherapists, in developing her motor skills.” Eddie is pretty sure Richie has fabricated this entire story. “And, you know, the aluminum technology has come a long way, you can barely tell she’s limping at all.”

“You’re joking?” Eddie says grinning as Richie cracks a smile and chuckles. Richie then nods his head, starting to laugh hard. “Fucking shit...how can you joke about something like that?!”

“Do you really think there are land mines in Nevada, Eds?” Richie asks, stepping closer to Eddie.

“I don’t know! You can’t joke about things like that! And what did i say about calling me that!”

“Hey, I could have joked about something much worse.”

“No, you couldn’t have because that’s a really serious thing to joke about!”

“I could have joked about her having a dick.” Eddie rolls his eyes, “That would’ve been going to far.” An uncomfortable silence falls over the two as the tension in the room grows.

“I don’t think aluminum technology was…”

“Oh that’s what gave me away?” Eddie nods, staring at the ground once again.

“But, she’s sweet” Eddie says sounding melancholy giving Richie a weak smile. “Beverly…”

As Eddie is looking down, Richie walks closer towards him until they are less than a only a few inches apart, and he starts to lean his face into Eddie’s, their lips so close that Eddie can feel Richie’s breath against his lips. Eddie’s brain is going haywire, in such shock about what is happening that he can barely process the situation. Right before Richie’s lips are about to touch his own, they hear the front door slam and abruptly pull apart. They walk into the living room, seeing Steve with some random boy around his arm, pulling him back into his bedroom, and the tension between the two boys is suddenly gone, ruining whatever was about to happen.


	8. Chapter 8

Saturday, 11:47 am

Eddie was currently sitting on his couch, his leg bouncing as he sat nervously staring at his phone. Before Richie left the night before, the two had made plans to hang out tonight. He had yet to hear from Richie, and was working up the courage to send him a text, asking him if they still had plans. 

_ Hey thanks for yesterday, what are your plans for today?  _

Eddie had never been this nervous about texting someone before in his life. He was irrationally worried about saying the wrong thing and pushing Richie away, especially after everything that had happened the night before. A few minutes later his phone pings with Richie’s reply.

_ Yeah, thanks for last night. I forgot that I’d already made plans with Beverly. Sorry, see you in school. _

Of course. Of course Richie would be spending his saturday night with his girlfriend. Eddie was so stupid to think Richie would actually choose him over Beverly.

Monday, 10:42 am

Eddie is walking up to his locker when he sees a note taped on it that has also been taped on all the other lockers.

_ Note: _

_ Will and Lucas’s Halloween Party _

_ Friday at Will’s house _

He crumples it up, not having much interest in going to some huge rager. Eddie is trying to open his locker, but for some reason it won’t budge. He stands there for some time, banging and pulling on it to try to get open.

“Hey.” Eddie looks to his right and sees that Richie is walking up to him.

“Hi.” Eddie can feel his heart rate increase.

“Are you going to the Halloween thing?”

“Uh, no. Or maybe. I don’t know. Are you going?”

“Join, then.” Richie says casually, leaning against the lockers.

“Okay.” Was Richie asking Eddie to go with him personally, or just as a friend? Eddie honestly had no idea.

“Okay, then we’ll pregame together.”

“Yeah.” As Richie starts to walk away, he punches Eddie’s locker, causing it to finally fly open. Once Richie leaves, Eddie can see that Bill is standing at his locker that is only a few over from Eddie’s.

“Hey.” Bill greets him.

“Hi.” The two don’t say anything, Bill seems angry at Eddie for an unknown reason.

“D-did you d-do anything f-fun this w-weekend?” Eddie’s friends still don’t know he through a pregame on Friday.

“No.” 

“I tried c-calling you on F-friday, th-though.”

“Yeah, I saw but a lot happened over the weekend.”

“I heard you hosted a pregame?” Eddie’s eyes widen, panicking about what to say to insure Bill won’t get even more upset.

“Yeah, I did. Well not really, it was kind of...I was kind of forced by Max to host one. She’s so hung up on that student government stuff.” Eddie was really trying his best to cover his ass right now, rambling whatever excuse came to mind. “And then she spoke with Steve and stuff, so I didn’t have much choice. But it wasn’t as though I hosted it, it was more her having it at my place, it was freaking boring. You didn’t miss out on anything.”

“Its B-ben’s b-birthday on S-saturday.”

“No way!”

“Yeah, s-so S-stan and I th-thought w-we’d d-do s-something cool for him.”

“Yeah, I’m in.”

“Yeah?” Bill says smiling.

“We can make sure he gets laid for the first time.” the two boys laugh with one another. “We’ll have to call some of those dancing chicks, he seemed to like them.” The two walk off, continuing their conversation of planning for Ben’s small party.

Wednesday, 1:31 pm

Eddie is studying with Mike for their science class, but Eddie isn’t paying attention as Mike reads questions out of their textbook. He is currently checking his phone, reading the latest ramblings from his mother.

_.have mercy on meO God according to your unfailing love according to YOUR _

_ great _

_ compassions !!!!! _

_ blot out my transgressions  _

_ Wash away all my iniquity and. cleanse me of my sin for i know my transgression and my sin is always before me against you you only have i sinned and done what IS EVIL IN YOU SIGHT.. _

_ So you are right in your verdict and justified wheNyou JUDGE! Surely I was sinful at birth _

_ SINFUL, From the time my, MOTHER CONCEIVED ME _

“Can you focus?!” Mike shouts, bring Eddie’s attention back to him.

“Mhm.” Eddie mumbles, setting his phone down.

“Mike, I have a question. No offense, but how are you religious? It’s 2017 and the world is progressing. You’re a smart guy, don’t you realize it’s all nonsense?” Mike was Muslim, and scientific people who were also religious always baffled Eddie.

“Is there something about my religion that bothers you?”

“Nothing specific about your religion, other than that you believe that there are some things that are right and some things that are wrong, and that there’s a god who get’s to decide those things and says that homosexuality is wrong, or it’s wrong to eat hot dogs and stuff like that.”

“What is it that you believe in Eddie?”

“Me? I simply believe in natural science, the theory of evolution. I don’t believe in jack squat other than that.”

“Okay, then let’s take a look at the theory of evolution. How do you explain homosexuality in regards to natural selection? Evolutionary homosexuality is a genetic dead end. Homosexuals don’t pass on their genetics. So they should, according to the theory of evolution, have gone extinct millions of years ago. Unless homosexuality isn’t genetic, but a mental illness, or a choice one makes. What are your thoughts on the matter?” 

Eddie honestly has no idea what to say, he can’t believe his friend said such homophobic things, and now he’s sure he can never tell Mike that he likes guys. “I don’t fucking know! I don’t go around thinking about homosexuality all the time.” He does.

“Right. So considering you don’t have all the answers either, can’t we just agree on the fact that there is a lot more between heaven and Earth than anyone of us know? And instead of criticizing my religion, can’t you just respect that we have chosen different beliefs?”

“Whatever-”

“Hey!” Jane has just walked up to the table that Mike and Eddie are sitting at. “I talked to Bev and she was wondering if we could host the pregame at your place?”

“Hm?”

“Beverly. Richie’s girlfriend.” Hearing her name put a sour taste in Eddie’s mouth.

“Yeah?”

“She said that you and Richie had planned the pregame before the Halloween party.”

“Uh, yeah.”

“With us.” Eddie honestly thought that it was going to just be him and Richie.

“Right, yeah.”

“Okay, cool! And another thing, Bev and Richie are going to dress up as God and an angel, so I thought it would be cool if we matched as well? Maybe if we dressed up as a cat and mouse, or Batman and Batwoman or something.” Eddie can see out of the corner of his eye that Mike is smirking. “Only if you think that’d be fun. Either way, I’ll text you.” She then walks away from the table. Eddie looks over at Mike who now has a large grin on his face.

“What?!” Eddie exclaims before the two return to studying.

Friday, 9:15 pm

Eddie, Jane, Richie, and Beverly were all currently at Eddie’s apartment for their pregame. Eddie and Jane decided to go dressed as Julius Caesar and Cleopatra. The two girls were having a conversation about how Beverly misses being in school since she’d already graduated, while Eddie and Richie kept glimpsing at one another while the other wasn’t looking, a tension building unbeknownst to the girls.

“Can you please take it easy on the beer?” Bev says to Richie.

“Can you stop babysitting me?” Richie snaps back, staring right at Beverly. “I mean it. Stop monitoring me.” Eddie and Jane grow uncomfortable having to sit through what could easily turn into a large argument.

“Where’s the bathroom?” Beverly says as she stands up, trying to avoid a confrontation.

“In the hall and to the right.” Eddie directs. The three of them left in the living room sit uncomfortably, not knowing how to start up an new conversation. Jane then gets up too, and leaves the room. Richie looks deep in thought, his signature smirk off his face for once. “I heard that a lot of people will be going to the party.”

“What time is it?”

“9:21”

“For real?”

“Yeah, what about it?”

“Let’s get out of here.” Richie says, starting to stand up off the couch, drinking the last of his beer.

“Uh, where to?”

“Anywhere.” Eddie stays seated, he knows if he leaves it will upset Jane and Beverly and he doesn’t want to deal with that, but his desire to be with Richie gets the best of him and he follows the taller boy outside. 

Richie is riding his bike with Eddie hanging off the back, Eddie having no idea where the two of them are going. Richie would occasionally look back at Eddie and smile. Eventually they pull up to a house in a nice neighborhood that Eddie’s never been in.

“I feel like going for a swim, don’t you Eds?” Richie then gets off the bike, walking towards the house. This boy’s behavior just keeps surprising Eddie more and more.

“A swim?”

“Yeah.” Eddie gets off the bike, following behind Richie.

“Who lives here?” Richie is kneeling down at a window that connects to the basement where there is a large indoor pool.

“My aunt.” Richie is trying to find something to pick the window’s lock with.

“And she’s okay with us being here?”

“Of course, don’t worry.”

“But, where’s your aunt?” Eddie really didn’t want to break into someone’s house, even if it was a relative of Richie’s.

“She’s on vacation.”

“Okay, why don’t you have a key then?” Eddie laughs lightly.

“Because she’s on vacation.”

“Yeah, that’s the answer to everyth-”

“Relax, don’t worry.” Richie finally gets the window open. “There we go.” He climbs in the window, Eddie hesitantly going in after him. Once they’re in the basement, Richie takes off his shoes and the accessories to his costume, as Eddie stands there staring down at the pool. “Why are you being so skeptical?”

“I’m not skeptical, but it’s a little weird that we are going to-”

“Are you afraid to go swimming?” Richie chuckles.

“Afraid to go swimming?!”

“Are you afraid of water?”

“Afraid of water?!” Richie starts to laugh hard at how flustered Eddie is getting.

“Oh, is Eddie Spaghetti scared to fuck up his hairdo?” Eddie makes a puzzled look as he has never really put much effort into his short hair, Richie seems like the guy who would care about messing up his mop of curls.

“You think I care about my hairdo?”

“What else am I to believe?” Eddie finally starts to take off some of his clothes.

“Does it look like I care about my hair?” Eddie says, pointing to his head.

“Well not right now, but like normally.” Getting annoyed with him, Eddie pushes Richie into the pull, but loses his footing and falls in right after him. Eddie immediately comes up from beneath the water, Richie still staying under. When Richie eventually pops up, he’s floating only a few inches in front of Eddie.

“Did you think I’d died” Richie jokes.

“Yeah, I was so scared.” The two boys start laughing, Richie has floated backwards and they are now a few feet apart. “You suck at holding your breath.”

“I suck?”

“Yeah.”

“Fuck you, you try it then.”

“You challenging me?!”

“Of course.”

“You shouldn’t, I’m a fucking champion.”

“Show me.”

“Okay, fine.” Eddie goes underwater, and immediately choking and swallowing water, forcing him to go back up.

“Wow. You never cease to impress me Eds.”

“I got water in my lungs!”

“Yeah right.”

“I swallowed water! I need to do it one more time.”

“Let’s do it together. On three. One, two, three.” The two dive under the water, staring directly at each other, only about a foot apart. After a couple seconds, Richie reaches his hand out and hits Eddie in the throat, catching him off guard. While Eddie is distracted, Richie quickly swims up to him, crashing his lips onto Eddie’s. Eddie is so taken aback, that he swims up to the surface, Richie coming up right after.

“Yes!” Richie shouts.

“Yes what?!”

“I won.”

“No, that’s cheating.”

“What is?”

“Yeah, that’s cheating!”

“You think there are any rules here?”

“Uh, yeah?!”

“What rules are you thinking?”

“I mean, that’s just cheating, that’s not allowed. I won’t accept losing because of something like that.”

“Okay, let’s try again then.” They both go underwater at the same time again. This time Eddie swims towards Richie, putting his lips on his, much softer than before. The two don’t separate as they rise to the service, now kissing each other desperately. As Richie’s hands are settled on Eddie’s cheeks, holding his face in his hands. They separate for a second, giving each other a look of happiness and admiration, as if both of them have been wanting this for a long time, before kissing each other once more.

_ This  _ is what people talked about when they talked about kissing, Eddie thought. The soft and wet touch of someone’s lips against your own, their hands touching you and it’s as if that’s the only part of the world you can feel or notice. You body heating up, so full of pleasure and sensation you can feel your skin tingling. Eddie never realized that a “spark” actually felt like a spark, it felt as if there were fireworks going off all throughout his body, feeling the explosions flowing through his veins. He never felt this with Jane or any other girl, and he was so desperate for more. He’s desperate for Richie, every part of him.

Eddie thinks he hears something, and separates from Richie, looking over and seeing a little girl standing at the edge of the pool. Both Eddie and Richie freeze, staring in horror at the girl.

“Mommy!”

“Fuck, fuck, fuck” Richie says. The two scramble out of the pool as fast as they can, grabbing their discarded clothes.

“What the hell?! Who the fuck is she?”

“Uh, it’s not my aunt’s house.”

“So who the hell lives here then?!”

“Someone I went to elementary school with.” They both climb out the window, hopping on Richie’s bike and riding away from the house as fast as they can.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it finally happened!!!! I keep forgetting to put this in the comments but this is a repost from my tumblr http://that4amkick.tumblr.com/


	9. Chapter 9

Saturday, 3:15 pm

Richie and Eddie were currently laying in Eddie’s bed. The entire day so far has consisted of lazy makeout sessions and smoking joints. Eddie doesn’t think he’s ever been happier than when he’s laying in Richie’s arms, rubbing their nose together and stealing soft kisses. Today had been innocent, nothing as needy as last night in the pool. The only person who looked happier than Eddie was Richie, whose eyes went soft and his smile wide whenever he so much as glanced the younger boy.

Eddie was currently snuggled into Richie’s side. “I think life’s just like a movie, and you can be the director of your own life. Do you get what I mean?” Richie says to Eddie.

Eddie turns his head to face him. “I do, but I’m not sure I completely agree.”

“You don’t agree?”

“No, what makes it all so interesting is the infinity.”

“What do you mean?”

“All the parallel universes, everything, just how big everything is. How insignificant we are compared to all of the infinite parallel universes that exist, and everything that can happen will happen. Not only will it happen, it is happening. There’s another universe where we are two blonde hair, blue eyes Norwegian guys, and one where I get your my arm bitten off by a demonic clown. And it’s even simpler than that, there is probably in a parallel universe, a Richie and Eddie that are lying in the exact same way, in the exact same place, only that there’s like a different color on the curtains or whatever.”

Richie looks over at the yellow curtains hanging in front of Eddie’s window. “So, white curtains then?”

“Yeah.”

“I think that’s enough bud for you Eds.”

Eddie laughs. “Have you ever thought about it?”

“Yeah, but it just makes me feel so, I don’t know, lonely.”

“But it’s so interesting!”

“Nah, I don’t like it.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t know, it freaks me out.” Their tones become more somber.

“In what way?”

“Not freaked out the way you get by a scary movie, but more of a feeling alone sort of freaking out. That like, it’s your head. It’s you and your head, and all of your thoughts.”

“Alone in your head? What do you mean?”

“The brain is alone feeling.”

“What kind of feeling is ‘the brain is alone’?”

“Because there’s only you and your thoughts, you can’t escape your thoughts. The only way is to die.”

Eddie had never heard Richie talk in such a negative way before and it was concerning. “That’s real dark though.”

“Yeah, but have you never thought about it before?”

“No.”

“Jeez, I’d forgotten how young you are Eds.” Eddie was only a year younger than Richie, and the two laugh at how Richie was playing fun at this.

They hear a knock at the door, and both turn their heads to look at it.

“What is it?” Eddie yells out.

“Are you just going to stay in there all day?” Steve says through the door. He doesn’t know that Richie is there.

“I’m sleeping.” Richie starts laughing silently under his breath.

“Whose shoes are in the hall?”

“Those, uh, are Bill’s. I borrowed them.”

“Okay…”

“Fucking babysitter.” Eddie grumbles to Richie once Steve’s gone.

“How did you end up in a shared apartment?”

“There was this one night where me and my mom got in a huge argument, and I left and got really drunk, then I met Steve.”

“So he basically picked you up then?”

“I don’t know, I don’t actually remember. I think he just felt sorry for me because and my dad just left my mom too. And the thing was I didn’t want to go back home,” Richie is rubbing slowly rubbing his hand along Eddie’s back as he talks. “So he brought me back here and blah blah blah.”

Richie smiles. “Blah blah blah, good story.”

“You can have it, make a movie.”

“I will make a movie about you, do you want to know what it’s called?”

“What?”

“They boy who couldn’t hold his breath underwater.”

Eddie rolls his eyes. “Sounds like a pompous piece of shit movie.” Richie starts laughing at his own remark. “And by the way, I can hold my breath underwater. It’s just that I got a drop of water in my throat.”

“Drop of water in your throat, yeah?”

Richie’s phone starts buzzing, he looks down to check it and sighs deeply. “Beverly?” Eddie asks.

“I’m so fucked.” Richie pulls Eddie in closer to his side. “Can’t I just stay in here with you forever. Can we do that?”

“We can do that.”

Sunday, 9:32 am

Eddie wakes up the next morning alone in bed, wondering where Richie went. There is a piece of paper with a line of text at the top and two drawings underneath. The text read:

_I don’t sleep cuz sleep is the cousin of death_  
_you are hot <3_

Each drawing is a picture of Eddie, the left one with a tear running down his cheek, while the right had no tear droplet with text above the second picture reading:

_The same time in a completely different place in the universe_

Eddie is starting to wonder if his day with Richie was a one time thing, and now he will have to go back to watching Richie do everything with Beverly the two did that previous day, knowing that Richie secretly wants to be with him. He looks at his phone and doesn’t have any messages from Richie. He gets dressed and gets up to grab some food from the kitchen, but when he opens the door, Steve is standing right across from it cleaning.

“Hey! Good morning Eddie!” It far too early for Eddie to deal with Steve’s high energy.

“Good morning.” He replies disgruntled.

“So uh, that Richie guy was really cool.”

Eddie’s eyes go wide and he stays silent for a few seconds. He really did not want Steve to find out about Richie. “...you met him?”

“Yeah, in the bathroom this morning. So, who is he?”

“He’s uh, um, just a friend.” Steve doesn’t look like he believes Eddie.

“Okay?” Eddie then shuts the door in Steve’s face.

Monday, 11:52 am

Class had just gotten out and Eddie is standing in the hall trying to find Richie.

“Is Richie at school today?” He asks someone in Richie’s grade as they pass by.

“Richie? No, I haven’t seen him today.” He sees Jane walking down the hall, and quickly hustles down the stairwell beside him. He heads out to the courtyard to meet up with his friends. The three boys seem to be having a conversation and haven’t noticed that Eddie has walked up yet. One of them mentions Ben’s birthday, the birthday that Eddie entirely forgot about because he was too busy with Richie.

“Fuck! It was your birthday!”

“Yeah.”

“I’m sorry bro...uh, congrats.” He steps towards Ben, arms outreached to hug him.

“Thanks.”

“You’re 17 man.” Ben, Bill, and Stan all look very uncomfortable being around Eddie, even more so than when Eddie has bailed on them in the past. “I had to go to this fucking, uh, family dinner. So boring.” None of his friends look like they believe him. “So what happened?”

“This guys hooked me up with some girl.” Stan says about Ben.

“No way! Did you guys have sex?”

“No, almost.”

“A-almost, right?” Bill says as he and Stan start laughing, and Eddie is upset he’s out of the loop for once.

“It was close!”

“Y-yeah, yeah. It w-was c-close.”

“What happened?” Eddie asks.

“It’s a l-long s-story man.” The three boys continue reminiscing on the events from Saturday night, not acknowledging Eddie at all that much.

Wednesday, 10:34 am

Eddie is currently in gym class kicking around a soccer ball while over students are running laps around the gym. He looks up from watching the ball and sees Richie standing at the entrance to the gym, piercingly staring at him. He starts to walk away, signaling for Eddie to follow him back into the changing room.

“Hi.” Eddie says.

“Hey.”

“Where have you been?”

“I, uh...have told Beverly about you,” Richie says slowly, having trouble making eye contact as he speaks. “And we’ve decided to take a break.” Both stand there silent, Richie seeming nervous about how Eddie will reply, while Eddie can’t believe what he is hearing and thinks he’s in some far off dream. “What do you think about that?”

“Awesome.”

“Yeah?”

“Or if it, uh, if it makes you sad, then it’s, I hope it’s not my fault.”

Richie becomes much more relaxed as his eyes light up and a large smile forms on his face. “I’m not sad?!”

“No?”

“No!” Richie steps forward closing the distance between the two as he briefly presses his lips against Eddie’s, then presses their foreheads together, the two smiling at one another. “What do you think your parents would say if you started dating me?”

Eddie doesn’t want to tell his boyfriend(?) that he isn’t sure how his parents would feel about him dating a boy, and chooses to comfort him rather than tell the truth. “I think that would be okay.”

“Yeah?”

“Or, my dad probably wouldn’t mind.”

“But mom would?” Richie swallows the lump in his throat nervously, not wanting to cause Eddie to have an even worse relationship with his parents.

Eddie thinks back to the night he left his mom’s. She had been yelling about gay people, about how they’ve strayed from God with their “unnatural behavior”, and Eddie couldn’t handle it. He started yelling at his mom about the cruelty of religion in a similar way he did with Mike the other day. Once he got sick of fighting, he got up and left the house, and only came back when his mother wasn’t working so he could get his stuff. “My mom’s insane.”

Richie’s expression darkens at Eddie’s words, but not enough for Eddie to even notice. “In what way?” He says weakly, sounding very serious, almost as if he’s mad at Eddie. But Richie is clearly trying to hide these negative emotions in front of Eddie.

“She, I mean, it’s a completely surreal situation.” Eddie thinks about all the noncoherent messages him mom sends him on a daily basis. “She thinks the world is about to end, like my uncle is Donald Trump.” A slight smirk comes back to Richie’s face. “My uncle is not Donald Trump.”

“Phew, okay.”

“But anyway, it’s none of her fucking concern, we haven’t spoken since I moved out.”

“So you don’t keep in touch anymore?”

“No. I mean, I decided my life would be better without mentally ill people around me. What do you think parents would say about me?”

Richie doesn’t reply, and looks hurt over something but Eddie isn’t sure what. He doesn’t reply as the school bell rings, but reaches out his hand, placing it on Eddie’s neck as he rubs his thumb against side of his face. “I think they’d love you.” he says, and pulls Eddie’s face towards his own, kissing him one last time before leaving the changing room. Eddie smiles softly as the boys from gym class start to walk in. Eddie couldn’t believe he was dating the one and only Richie Tozier.


	10. Chapter 10

Thursday, 5:15 pm

Eddie is lying in bed, staring at the ceiling and thinking about Richie. He can’t believe he is dating him, that he has the privilege of being with the most beautiful boy’s he has ever laid eyes on. He thinks about how nervous Richie was the other day in the locker room, and how happy he was when Eddie said he wanted to be with him. He rolls over, looking at the spot in his bed where Richie was the past weekend, and wishes Richie was here with him right now, his arm wrapped around Eddie’s body. He rubs the pillow Richie used against his face; it still slightly smelled like the curly haired boy. He pulls out his phone to text said boy.

_Hey. So I’ve cleaned the stairs for six hours and OD-day is killing me. What have you been up to today? It was nice seeing you yesterday. Wanna hang?_

“Hey little buddy!” Steve says from Eddie’s doorway, walking into the room.

“Hi.”

“I’ve brought a little present for you, since you were good and paid your rent today.”

“You have a present for me?”

“Do you want it?

“Uh, yeah?” Eddie sits up in bed as Steve sits down beside him.

Steve pulls an air freshener out from behind his back. “Voila! For you.” Steve hands out the air freshener for Eddie to take.

“Air freshener! Funny.”

“Yeah it’s this wonderful lavender fragrance that I thought you could have here in your room.” Steve was always nagging Eddie about how much his room smelled like a teenage boy.

“Thank you so much.”

“In case that you have that, uh, in case that guy Richie, or whatever his name was, comes back...to visit.” Steve seems to be trying to get Eddie to tell him what he already knows; that Eddie is gay and seeing Richie.

“Uh, Steve?”

“Yeah?”

“I guess I could tell you that…” Eddie can feel his heart beating out of his chest and his hands are shaking and clammy. This is the first time he’s came out to anyone. “There is...there’s kind of a thing going on between Richie and I… we’re seeing each other.”

Steve smiles as Eddie stares down at his back. “Really? That’s awesome Eddie.” Eddie seems really uncomfortable and embarrassed by telling someone about Richie, and Steve tries to comfort him, adopting a very consoling tone. “Hey, that’s absolutely amazing.”

“You’re not surprised?”

“Eddie, the first time I met you, you were alone at a gay club at 2 am and didn’t want to go home.”

“I’ve told you I didn’t know it was a gay club. But this doesn’t mean I’m gay.”

“No, I mean, that doesn’t matter, though. The most important thing is that you’ve found someone you like-”

“There’s nothing wrong with being gay. It’s just that I’m not, you know, ‘gay’-gay.”

“Okay? In what way?”

“You know...like you.”

Steve’s soft expression quickly fades into an upset one. “Okay? And how am I?”

“You know what I mean, like how you talking about sucking cock, and Kim Kardashian, and lavender fragrance.” With each word Eddie says Steve looks more hurt. “I completely respect that you take the whole gay thing all the way, but just, I’m not like that.”

“There is no gay ‘thing’ that I’ve decided to take all the way. I’m just trying to be myself Eddie.”

“Yeah, I get that. I mean obviously you’re just being yourself. What I mean to say is that it seems like everyone associates being gay with being like that, and it’s kind of a bummer for those who aren’t like that. And because it’s not as though I’m going to be wearing mascara and tights, and go to Gay Pride just because I like Richie.”

Steve seems to be holding back the urge to yell at Eddie, trying his best to stay calm. “Okay...let me tell you one thing about those people who you don’t want to be associated with Eddie, about those who put on tights and mascara and went out and fought for the right to be themselves. There are people throughout the years who have chosen to withstand harassment and hatred, people who have been beaten and killed, and that’s not because they really want to be different, but because they would rather die than pretend to be someone they’re not. And that Eddie, required courage on a completely different level than most people can comprehend, and I think that until you’ve fought those battles yourself, until you’ve had the guts to stand up for who you are, you should be really fucking careful about talking about and putting yourself about Gay Pride.”

“I didn’t mean to put myself above it…”

“Yeah Eddie, you did. And now...” Steve says trying to hold back tears. “Now I don’t really feel like talking to you anymore. So now you can sit here and think about what I just told you” Steve then gets up and leaves Eddie’s room, leaving Eddie feeling as if there is a block of lead in his stomach. As he’s sitting there, his phone pings as Richie had just replied to him.

_Hey, it was nice seeing you as well. I don’t know, but things have been moved along a little too quickly...I know it’s my fault, but I need time, sorry._

Eddie can’t believe what he’s reading, and has to look over the message several times to make sure he read it right, that lead block in his stomach now threatening to come back up and out his mouth.

Friday, 9:32 pm

Ben, Bill, Stan, and Eddie were all having a pregame together, hoping to find a party to go to that night. Eddie’s three friends were talking to one another, but Eddie sat and stared at the floor completely drained of all emotion. His stomach hadn’t stopped turning since Richie had texted him the night before, and Eddie was kicking himself for believing what he had with Richie was real. He was hoping Richie would come back around, but he honestly had no idea.

The boys had finally found a party to go to, and it was at Jane’s place. “You can get us in Eddie!” Ben says to him, all three of Eddie’s friends looking excited.

There’s no way Jane wants anything to do with Eddie after what happened on Friday. “No, she hates me now.”

“W-what? Why?” Bill asks.

“Just try to talk to her.” Stan interjects.

“It’s not going to work, it doesn’t matter that I know her. She hates me.”

“Yeah Eddie has to go to a family get-together apparently, so let’s just the three of us go there.” Eddie glares right at Stan.

“What the fuck?!” Ben says, surprised that Stan is still this unhappy with Eddie.

“It’s that simple.” Stan replies.

“I forgive you for forgetting about my birthday.” Ben says to Eddie, showing that not all of them are mad at him.

Eddie shakes his head. “It’s not going to work.”

“Jane! Jane! Jane!” All three boys start cheering, trying to hype up Eddie, which is really having the opposite effect, his mouth turning into a thin line at his annoyance with his friends.

Simply wanting to shut his friends up, Eddie agrees to go to the party with them. Once they start heading to Jane’s, Eddie walks behind the other three who are all standing side by side.

Once they reach the party, the two guys at the door have no idea who any of the four boys are.

“Who are you? What are you guys doing?”

“We’re going to the party, that’s what.” Stan snaps back.

“T-this is J-Jane’s place?” Bill asks.

“Yeah, are you guys invited?”

“Yeah” Stan and Bill reply, and start trying to convince the bouncer that they were invited to the party, but aren’t succeeding.

“Can’t you just check if Jane’s here and confirm that we’ve been invited?” Stan asks.

“It’s okay, I know them.” Max says, who was standing right by the door.

“I don’t know guys, it’s starting to fill up in here.” As the guys continue to try to weasel their way in, Eddie spots a similar pair of glasses and mop of black hair inside the house. He needs to go talk to Richie.

“Can you just let me in?” Eddie interrupts.

“Why would I let you in?”

“My name is Eddie and im a junior and I know Jane, she’s a sophomore. Just let me talk to her.”

“And her last name is?”

“Her name is Jane Hopper, I know her well. Just let me in! And then meanwhile these guys can wait out here and then I’ll come right back.”

“You do realize there are a lot of people here, right? So you’ll only take a minute while they wait here, okay?”

“Yes.” Eddie rushes past the bouncer and begins maneuvering his way through the house trying to find Richie. He eventually spots him on the other side of the room, but before he can make it over there Jane walks up to him holding a very stern expression. “Hey.” Eddie breathes out, his eyes wide.

“What are you doing here?”

“Hey, listen...it was, uh, really shitty of us to leave you guys on Halloween. I get it if you think I’m an asshole.”

“That’s not the reason I think you’re an asshole. I think you’re an asshole because you let me be interested in you, even though you’re gay. We’re in 2017 Eddie. Get out of the closest.” She then storms off. Eddie stands there frozen for several seconds, shocked that Jane knew. But of course she knew, Beverly must have told her. Reality was setting in about Eddie having to stop hiding the fact he was gay from both himself and others.

When he looks back up at Richie, Beverly is standing in front of him, and she grabs his neck, pulling him down to kiss her. Eddie’s throat dries and his eyes glaze over as he turns around to leave the party as fast as he can. “Let’s get out of here.” He says to his friends once he’s out of the house and continues walking regardless of if his friends are going to follow.

“What?” Bill replies.

“He’s going to a family get together, just let him leave.” Stan says. Eddie stops in his tracks, turning around to face Stan before charging at him, pushing him against the wall.

“Do you have to be so rude?!” Eddie yells at Stan.

“Hey! What the fucks up with you?!” Ben shouts back, pushing Eddie away from Stan. All three of the boys stare at Eddie looking very angry and upset with him before Eddie turns around, quickly walking away from Jane’s.

Eddie doesn’t think he’s ever been this angry in his life. He’s angry at Richie for lying to him, angry that Beverly get’s to be with Richie, angry at Stan for constantly being rude to him, angry at the entire world. He feels like there’s a fire in his chest, all his muscles tightening and begging Eddie to hit and throw things, and scream at the top of his lungs. As he’s storming down the street, that’s exactly what he does, releasing all the anger that has physically manifested in him. He kicks every bush and tree he walks by, letting out aggressive yells as he does so. Once all his anger out and the tension is released from his body, he’s left empty. He’s so empty but he feels so heavy at the same time, and his chest feels as if his heart is literally broken. He sinks to his knees on the sidewalk as he lets out a cry. The street is completely empty as far as Eddie can see, leaving him both literally and metaphorically alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> you know what they say, if your characters kiss early in the story, its about to get real angsty


	11. Chapter 11

Monday, 9:58 am

Eddie was standing in the courtyard in front of the school. At one side of it he saw Jane standing with her friends, and on the other, Richie with his. He was listening to _You Can Hate Me_ Now by Nas, the conversation he had with Richie when he was at Richie’s apartment coming back to his head:

“ _I’m a pretty big fan of NWA, but-”_

_“That’s what you listen to before school to get you hyped?”_

_“It’s like, the kind of music you listen to when you want to walk around and feel cool.”_

_“Have you listened to Nas?”_

And that’s what Eddie was going to do right now; walk across the courtyard with Nas blasting through his eardrums, and not look at anyone as he did so, especially not Jane or Richie. As he walked past both of them, he could feel their eyes lingering on him. He was so stuck in the moment, that he walked right into some guy.

“Watch where you’re going!” The guy shouts.

When Eddie gets to his locker, Bill is already standing at his own. “Hey.” Eddie says getting Bill’s attention.

“H-hey.”

“Whats up?” Neither of them are looking at each other as they speak.

“N-not much.”

“Is Stan still mad at me?”

“N-no one’s m-mad at y-you man.” Bill finally looks up at Eddie.

“You sure?”

“Yeah. W-we’re j-just w-worried man. W-e d-don’t really kn-know what y-your th-thing is.”

“My thing?”

“Yeah, y-you’ve b-been acting s-so s-strange.”

“Oh, yeah. I’m sorry about that. It’s just a lot is happening right now. Family and stuff. And I can’t sleep so I lose my temper so damn quickly. But I’m sorry about that.”

Eddie knows that Bill doesn’t believe anything he’s saying. “Okay...b-but, let me kn-know if y-you w-want to talk about it.” Bill says before walking away and leaving Eddie standing by his locker.

Wednesday, 10:05 am

Eddie was currently at the store near school buying some food from the deli.

“Do you still have any mac and cheese?” He asks the cashier.

“I can heat some up for you!”

“Can you heat some up for me as well.” A voice next to Eddie says, and Eddie _swears_ it sounds just like Richie, but he looks over and it’s not him. Eddie still can’t get Richie out of his head.

“That’ll be $4.52.” Eddie pulls the money out of his pocket and accidentally drops his change on the floor. He’s so on edge now; the moment where he thought Richie was standing right behind him in line nearly made his heart stop.

The cashier hands him his small bowl of pasta, and he turns around to leave the little shop, but there is someone standing in the doorway. Richie. Richie’s eyes go wide, he clearly didn’t plan to see Eddie when he went to go grab something to eat. They both stand and stare at one another, each seemingly out of breath.

“Hey.” Richie says faintly.

“Hi.”

“No black pepper?” Richie jokes, pointing at Eddie’s food, his face returning to it’s usual smugness. Eddie lets out a soft chuckle which brings the same softness to Richie’s eyes that was there that day spent in Eddie’s bed. “But, uh-”

“I think I gotta go.” Eddie quickly says before pushing past Richie.

Thursday, 2:08 pm

Eddie was currently sitting in the waiting room at the school’s doctor’s office. He can’t handle all these feelings he’s been having lately, and he’s going to do what his mom always did best; give him a bunch of pills.

“Eddie Kasprak?” The doctor calls after opening the door to her office, and Eddie gets up to follow her back. “Just have a seat.”

“You’re the school doctor right?”

“Yeah, I mean, not exactly a doctor. But yeah, kinda.”

“...it said doctor on the door…”

“Well, that sign is from 1962. What can I get for you?”

“I’ve been having trouble sleeping lately, and it’s starting to affect school and stuff.” That is not at all what has been affecting Eddie lately, but he highly doubted the “doctor” would prescribe him anything for being sad over a guy.

“That’s shitty.” This lady was unlike any health professional he’d ever met before, and he’d met a lot when he was a kid due to his mother’s insanity.

“Yeah. So I was thinking I could get some pills or something even though my problem isn’t the worst.”

“Sleep deprivation is very serious. You have to think about how many accidents could have been prevented if people hadn’t fall asleep behind the wheel for example.”

“I don’t drive though.”

“No but you’re moving around in traffic.”

“Yeah.”

“And that’s one inattentive moment, and then ‘Bam!’, you slam into a semi truck, break your neck, and get paralyzed from the neck down. You’ll go straight into a wheelchair. Eddie, how long have you had trouble sleeping?”

“It’s been a while really, but worse over the past couple weeks. Like, last night I slept for maybe one hour.”

“Yeah, well we’ll refer you to a psychiatrist.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means that you’ll talk to someone who can help sort out some of the thoughts in your head.” Eddie didn’t like the thought of that, he was trying to get medication for the exact opposite reason; he didn’t want to have to think about everything that buzzed around in his head.

“No. I’m not doing any of that. It’s not like that.” She continues to ignore him as she types the referral for Eddie into the computer. “I’m completely serious, I’m not doing that.”

She turns away from her computer and looks at Eddie, her mouth tight. “Eddie. Do you like other people?”

“Sure, yeah.”

“Because you see, every person is an island, and the only bridge across to others is through words. And as long as we don’t talk to each other, we end up becoming lonely little islands that are high on pills. Do you get what I’m saying?”

He had no idea how this connected to his issues. “No.”

“The point is that you can’t keep isolating yourself. Everything is harder on your own. Don’t you have someone you can talk to?” His mind went back to earlier that week.

_let me know if you want to talk about it._

Bill. He had Bill. He’s always had Bill.

Friday, 1:59 pm

Eddie was standing outside the school, watching Bill unlock his bike. Once he builds up the nerve, he walks over to his best friend.

“Hey.” He greets Bill.

“Hey.”

“Do you have any plans for tonight?”

“N-no, I d-don’t really kn-know. I was j-just th-thinking I’d go home and w-watch a movie or s-somthing.”

“What are you doing now though?”

“N-now? I w-was j-just th-thinking of going home. W-what about y-you?”

“You wanna join me to get Chipotle? I’ve got money.”

“Yeah, s-sure. W-who’d say n-no to Chipotle.”

“No one.”

Later once the two get their food, they sit on a bench in the park near the restaurant. Bill was telling some story about a party he was at, and Eddie was trying his best to listen, but he also was so nervous about talking to Bill about Richie that his food was threatening to come back up. Once Bill was done with his story and things went silent, Eddie knew this was the time.

“You know that thing about me being a little weird lately?” Eddie says, his voice shaking.

“Mhm.”

“It’s...it’s because of a person I like.”

“Jane?”

“No, not Jane. Take a guess.”

“A g-guess? I c-can’t g-guess.” Eddie’s eyes start to water, he’s so scared of what Bill will think, and thinking about Richie made his heart turn to a glass that could break at the slightest touch.

“C-can’t y-you j-just tell me?”

“I’ll give you a hint...” Eddie’s heart starts beating so fast he thought it may explode, and his hands were shaking so bad he almost dropped his food several times. “...it’s not a girl.”

“Hmm.” Bill’s silence scares Eddie. He’s not sure if he’s thinking about the fact that Eddie’s gay, or if he’s still trying to guess who he likes. “Is it me?”

A significant amount of Eddie’s nerves go away at the relief Bill not hating him for being gay, or even making the conversation about that.”No! You! No, no, no” He stammers, starting to laugh.

“I d-don’t fucking know, j-just tell me th-then. Is it that g-guy from s-student g-government?”

“Yeah.”

“W-what’s his n-name?”

“Richie.”

“G-good looking g-guy.”

Eddie starts laughing again. “What?”

“Y-yeah, w-what else am I s-supposed to s-say?”

“I don’t know.”

“W-what’s the th-thing between th-the two of y-you.”

“I’m not actually sure right now. I don’t understand shit because he’s a really back and forth kind of guy. And he has a girlfriend.” Eddie’s eyes turn red again from thinking about Beverly.

“Oh, I s-see.”

A phone starts ringing, and Eddie pulls his out of his pocket to see if it’s his. It was turned out to be Bill’s that was going off, but when Eddie pulls his phone out he finds a piece of paper in his pocket that he didn’t remember putting there. As Bill’s talking on the phone, Eddie unfolds the paper to see what it is. It’s a set of two pictures that he presumes were drawn by Richie. The left one is a drawing of Eddie alone holding a bowl, with a bubble of text pointing to the bowl that reads:

_mac and cheese without black pepper_

On the right is a drawing of Eddie and Richie together each holding a bowl. Along the top of the drawing it says:

_At a same time in a different place in the universe_

The bubble of text pointing to each of their bowls read:

_Mac and cheese with black pepper_

“W-whats that?” Bill asks looking down at the paper after ending his phone call.

“It’s from Richie.” Eddie is really confused as to when Richie would have managed to stick this in his pocket.

“H-he h-has g-got to break up with h-his g-girlfriend.” Eddie looks back down at the drawing and smiles in a way that only Richie can make him.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this isn’t as long as my recent chapters, mainly because I wanted the next chapter to be kinda standalone so I had to cut this one short, but I promise tomorrow’s chapter will make up for it!

Sunday, 4:35 pm

Eddie was walking into the kitchen of his apartment where Steve was making food. He needed to talk his roommate about something that he didn’t think any of his friends would understand.

“Steve, can I ask you a question?”

“Eddie, seriously?! Yes, I accept your apology. For the last time, I’m not mad at you, okay? I understand why you said what you said, and now I’m done with it. You’re seriously driving me craz-”

“That’s not it. I seriously need advice.”

“From me?” Eddie nods. “Okay, you want advice from ‘moi’?”

“Yeah.”

Steve is just trying to pull at Eddie’s tail. “Because...you trust me? And look up to me?”

Eddie rolls his eyes. “Yeah.”

“Because I’m your guru?”

“Sure.”

“Say it. Say that ‘Steve is my guru’.”

Eddie let’s out a sigh. “Fuck this.”

“Fineee, okay Eddie. What is it you were wondering?”

“You know that guy Richie?”

“Yeah, what about him?”

“We had a thing, you know...and he said that he would break up with his girlfriend...and then suddenly he says that things happened too fast, and then he’s back together with his girlfriend. And then after a while he gives me this drawing. And I’m thinking, ‘Okay cool’, and I send him a message thanking him for the drawing...but then he doesn’t answer.”

“But he has a girlfriend?”

“Yeah…”

“How long have they been together?”

“For about 3 years.”

“Okay…”

“That’s not good, or?”

“I mean, how honest would you like me to be?”

“Not too honest maybe...not fuck it, just say it like it is.”

“I know a lot of guys in straight relationships who sleep with guys. That’s pretty normal, but not a lot of guys leave their girlfriends to be together.” This is exactly what Eddie was afraid to here and his entire body goes numb as he can feel his eyes about to water. “I mean that’s just my opinion, my guru-advising…” Steve continues to try to make Eddie feel better, but Eddie’s expression as already gone flat.

Tuesday, 1:25 pm

Eddie was in science class working on a partner test with Mike. His phone is set out in front of him on their desk when a text from Max pops up on the screen.

_I hope you don’t find this question rude, but is it true that you’re gay?_

He quickly grabs his phone and shoves it in his pocket, but he’s not sure if Mike saw the message before he did. Once class is over and everyone has left, Eddie stays at his desk thinking of what to reply with Max with. He can’t believe that people are starting to find out; Eddie wasn’t ready to come out yet and this was all Richie’s fault.

_Where did you hear that?_

_It was just someone saying that you and that senior Richie had a thing?_

_Who said it?_

_Some sophomore who’d heard it from Jane who knows his girlfriend._   
_Sorry if it’s not true._   
_But it’s really cool if you are._   
_I love gays!_

Jane. He had Jane to thank for this.

Wednesday, 11:49 am

Eddie and Bill had just sat down at lunch with Ben and Stan, the two greeting them.

“Whats up?” Ben asked Eddie and Bill.

“N-not much, Eddie s-said he’ll be h-hosting a pregame on F-friday.” Bill replies.

“I’m in. You’ll join right?” Ben asks Stan, who still hasn’t said anything to Eddie.

“I’m not going to get violent again.” Eddie consoles Stan, a smile breaking out on Stan’s face.

“Okay, that’s chill.” Stan says.

“Oh! Did you hear the rumor that you guy’s fought at Jane’s party because Eddie is gay?” Ben says excitedly.

“What? No?” Stay says sounding surprised while Eddie stares at Ben with a subtle look of panic, Bill soon developing the same look.

“Yeah, it’s hilarious! Haven’t you heard?”

“Is it hilarious that the entire school things I’m a homophobe?”

“No...but it’s hilarious that people think Eddie is gay!” Eddie’s not staring at the floor, his eyes turning red.

“You did tell them that’s it’s bullshit?”

“I told them Eddie was going to a family dinner. That you fought because-”

“We didn’t even fight?!”

“Relax, man. It’s only a rumor, okay? Chill. Eddie looks over at Bill, Bill giving him a look saying that Eddie needs to tell the other two boys the truth.

Eddie’s heart is beating even faster than when he came out to Bill. “Uh, guys...do you remember when we were watching those girls dance?”

“Everytime I close my eyes the only thing I see are those girls.” Stan replies, him and Ben then fawning over the girls.

“Yeah, but do you remember...that a guy came up to us?”

“That gay guy?” _How did Ben know that,_ Eddie thinks has his eyes go as wide as they can.

“Why do you think he’s gay?”

“You’re the one who said he was gay?” Ben was evidently thinking about the dance instructor.

“No, not him! I’m talking about the other guy who came over.” Ben and Stan look confused, probably not remembering Richie all that well.

“Yeah, maybe?” Ben says.

“The guy who said I’d forgotten my hat in the cafeteria.”

“Yeah, I think I remember him. What about him?” Stay says, unsure.

Eddie is silent for several seconds, feeling as if the lump in his throat is preventing any words from coming out. “...We’ve had a thing.” Eddie stares at his two friends, looking for any sign of a reaction, but the two stare at him in shock.

“A thing?” Ben says smirking.

Eddie nods, “A thing.”

“Are you gay?”

“I’m not gay.” Eddie starts thinking about Richie as he says that. He thinks about how Richie made him feel, how much he loves every part of Richie’s face and body, and wanted to be able to memorize every square inch of it. He thinks about every moment they’ve shared, all the way back to the night he met him at the stupid student government meeting. “Well, maybe I’m a little gay, but it’s not as though I’m keen on guys all the time.”

Stan and Ben still look at him in bewilderment. “But...you hook up with chicks every weekend?” Ben says. Eddie has lied about a lot of the stories he’s told about girls, and even when he has done things with a girl, it was mainly to not make his friends suspect.

“Yeah, maybe he’s pansexual.” Stan says to Ben.

“What’s pansexual?” Ben asks.

“It’s when you like both.”

“That’s bisexual.”

“Yeah I th-think that’s bisexual.” Bill says, speaking for the first time in a while.

“Yeah, but like pansexual is also that you like both.”

“What the fuck is the difference between pansexual and bisexual? There’s not difference.” Ben laughs.

“Anyway, pansexual, bisexual, g-gay, or n-not, he said h-he’ll h-host in F-friday.” Bill says in an effort to end this conversation.

“Sweet.” Stan replies.

“Maybe we’ll get some chicks now that everyone thinks you’re gay.” Ben says.

“Doesn’t mean you’ve got any more game though.” Eddie remarks, causing all four boys to laugh with one another.

Thursday, 8:09 am

Eddie is standing at his locker, about to open it to get his things for his next class period. Once he gets it open after fighting with the lock, a piece of paper falls out of it. He picks it up, seeing it’s another drawing from Richie. Each of the two pictures was of a phone with a set of text messages open. The left one had one message, reading:

_Hi Richie. Thanks for the drawing. It was nice. When did you actually manage to put it in my jacket?_

This was the message Eddie had sent Richie a few days prior, and he never got a reply. The second image had the same heading it always does:

_At the same time in a completely different place in the universe_

The first message on the phone was the same, but this time there was a reply to it reading:

_Glad you liked it. Put it there when you had P.E. Miss you._

The innocent smile Eddie get’s from Richie comes back to his face for the first time since Eddie received the last drawing.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for the later than usual upload :( I'm in the midst of finals and havent had a lot of time to write. But here it is!!

****Friday, 6:26 pm

Eddie and his three best friends were all currently sitting at the table in Eddie’s kitchen where there are many empty beer cans already strewn across the table. Bill, Ben, and Stan were all debating over what the best kind of music to party to is while Eddie sits and vaguely listens to their conversation. He feels more conflicted than ever after talking to Steve about what’s going on with Richie and getting another drawing from him. Eddie had no idea what to expect from the dark haired boy next. Eddie tried to not get his hopes up, but he had a feeling he’d still end up upset and disappointed.

“W-what’s up man?” Bill asks Eddie as he could probably see Eddie’s discontent.

“Nothing I guess.”

“Nothing?” Ben and Stan are still bickering with one another as Bill talks to Eddie. “Anything n-new with that g-guy Richie?”

Eddie lets out a weak chuckle. “No. Well, I got a new drawing.”

“A n-new drawing? W-what’s his deal?”

Eddie shrugs. “I don’t know, he’s all over the place.”

“What are we talking about?” Ben asks, noticing Bill and Eddie having their own conversation. “Are you talking about Richie?” Eddie nods at Ben.

“What’s going on between you two?” Stan says.

“There’s nothing going on. He’s got a girlfriend.”

“Oh, he’s pansexual as well?” Ben replies.

“I don’t know.”

“I’ve been thinking about something, sorry if it’s rude, but gay people when they have sex,” Eddie knows what’s coming, and he already has a displeased look on his face, his mouth shut tight. “Who’s the man and who’s the woman?” Bill puts his face in his hand, letting out a deep sigh as he and Stan begin to laugh at the ignorance of Ben’s words.

“Dude…” Bill says.

“Funny you should ask,” Eddie replies to Ben, a complete sense of confidence in his voice. “Because I was going to ask you the same thing about when you have sex, who’s the man and who’s the woman, but then I remembered that you don’t have sex.” Him, Stan, and Bill all erupt in laughter as Ben’s cheeks go red.

“It wasn’t that bad of a question, was it?” Ben says sounding embarrassed as Eddie takes a swig of his drinks and smirks at the other boy.

“But s-seriously, I f-feel like y-you’re letting him play y-you kinda.” Bill remarks.

“Play me?”

“Like, h-he keeps leading y-you on and nothing h-happens, plus h-he’s still t-together with that ch-chick.”

Eddie knows all of this, but he keeps letting Richie treat him like that because even a slight hint of affection from the boy feels worth it to him. “Yeah...but I can’t control what he does."

‘Yes you c-can! If y-you’re like completely s-straight up and send h-him a text s-saying ‘Hey dude, s-stop w-what y-you’re doing!’”

“Yo dude, stop what you’re doing!” Eddie mocks Bill. “That’s not like me.”

“Okay, th-then say ‘S-stop texting me. Call me w-when y-you’ve broken up w-with your g-girlfriend.’ Straight up.”

“And if he’s interested he’s gonna get all stressed out.” Stan says. “We’ve all been there.”

“Y-yeah, exactly!’ Bill replies. “Like if y-you’re f-fooling around w-with a g-girl, or you’re just keen on h-hooking up with h-her, but y-you’re not keen on being in a relationship w-with her. But like, sh-she texts y-you and sh-she’s like ‘W-what’s up? Let’s meet, I’m t-tired of y-you not taking this s-seriously.’ Th-then y-you become s-serious right away.”

Eddie is really pondering Bill’s words, wondering if he should take his friends’ advice or not. Deciding that his friends probably know best, he pulls out his phone to text Richie as the other three boys continue talking.

_Hi, thanks for the drawing, but if you’re not interested in something more you can just let it be. Call me when you’re broken up with your girlfriend._

“I did it. I sent the text.” Eddie’s hands start sweating, _there’s no turning back no_ , he thinks.

“No w-way?!” Bill shouts, Eddie’s three friends all cheering. “Th-that really s-surprised me.” Eddie’s phone goes off, and he hurriedly digs it out of his pocket to see it it’s Richie.

_What are you doing right now? Can we talk?_

Eddie’s cheeks flush, and he is almost in shock about what is currently happening. “Is it him?” Ben asks.

“He answered.” Eddie cracks a lovestruck smile, but only for a second, and reads the message out to his friends. “Should I call him?”

“No, don’t c-call h-him.” Bill says. “Write ‘Ch-chilling at home.’”

“Chilling at home?”

“Yeah, that’s good.” Stan says in agreement with Bill’s suggestion.

Eddie reads out what he is typing.”Chilling at home...just call-”

“No!” Bill interjects. “Y-you w-want him to c-call, but like y-you have to write it as th-though you don’t want th-that? Y-you g-get me? S-so j-just write ‘Ch-chilling at home.’, and done.”

“Chilling at home...smiley?”

“No! J-just ‘C-chilling at home.’ No emotion.” Eddie types up the three word message and presses send.

“Sent.” Eddie feels more nervous than he felt the day he ran into Richie on the bus.

“H-he’s g-going to call.”

The four friends sit there in silence, taking small sips from their drinks as they all anxiously wait for Eddie’s phone ring. With each passing second the tension in the room grows stronger. “Check if there’s a bubble, if he’s writing something.” Ben says.

Eddie opens his phone, checking his messages with Richie. “No bubble. He’s not going to answer. That’s just the way he is.”

“Maybe he’s at a place where he can’t talk right now.” Stan says, trying to be hopeful.

Eddie knew Richie would disappoint him again. “Maybe…”

The boys try to make small talk again, but Eddie still isn’t saying a word. After a couple minutes, the buzzer goes off in the apartment, signaling someone is down at the entrance to the building and needs the door unlocked.

“Whats up? Did you invite someone?” Stan asks as Eddie gets up to check who’s there.

“No, you’re the only friends I’ve got. It’s probably Steve, he forgets his keys every fucking day.” Eddie was starting to get really sick of having to unlock the door for Steve on a regular basis, sometimes in the middle of the night. He looks out the window to see who’s waiting outside, and turns back around to face his friends. “...it’s Richie.”

All three boys look up at him, eyes wide in shock. “Seriously he’s here?” Ben asks.

“I’m not fucking around, it’s Richie.” Eddie has to look multiple times to make sure his eye’s aren’t playing tricks on him, but he could clearly see a pair of glasses accompanied by a mop of curls standing at the entrance to him complex. _How did he even get here so fast?_ Eddie thinks to himself.

“Let’s meet Richie guys!” Ben says excitedly, Ben and Stan agreeing.

“No!” Eddie wanted more than anything to be alone with Richie right now.

“Why can’t we meet Richie?”

“Seriously, I’m not fucking around!” He starts trying to rush his friends out the door. “Out, out, out, out.” The three boys all start shouting in protest as Eddie starts literally pushing them out. “Go out the backdoor or you’ll bump into him!” Once they are out the door, he closes it quickly, turning to walk back to the front door. Eddie doesn’t think his heart has been beating faster in his entire life.

He opens the door, and Richie is standing right in front of it, and stares right into Eddie’s eyes. Eddie knew Richie would be there once he opened the door, but his breath still hitched at the back of his throat when he laid eyes on him.

“Hi.” Eddie says softly.

“Hi.” Richie replies, giving Eddie the same look the night Eddie met him the school bathroom. The two stand there not having moved at all as they simply stare at one another, looking each other up and down. Electricity moves between their two bodies in a very different way that it ever had before, as it all seems to be going to one particular spot on Eddie’s body.

Eddie’s the first to move, and steps forward connecting his face with Richie’s as he grasps at the base of Richie’s neck as Richie grabs onto Eddie’s waste. The two step backwards into Eddie’s apartment, making there way back to Eddie’s room without separating from each other once. Richie keeps walking until he’s pressed Eddie into the wall, grabbing his neck with one of his hands while his other hand tightly grips Eddie’s hip, digging his nails into the fabric of Eddie’s shirt.

Richie separates from Eddie, staring at him with a lustful look in his eyes. “God, Eds you have no idea how long I’ve been waiting to do this.” Richie pulls off his own shirt as Eddie follows with his own. The two boys are connected to each other once again, and everything is desperate and aggressive, as if each boy has been waiting for this since the moment they laid eyes on each other.

Eddie can feel Richie’s hands move down to behind his legs, signaling for Eddie to put his legs around his waist. Eddie jumps up and does so, and wraps his arms around Richie’s neck and tugs at his hair, a small mouth eliciting from Richie’s mouth, which causes Eddie to smirk. He tugs harder, this time Richie letting out an even louder moan as he feels Richie’s arm shake under his thighs.

Eddie separates his mouth from Richie’s, moving his mouth next to Richie’s hear. “You like that?” He whispers and nibbles on his year as Richie let’s out a shaky breath.

“Fuck you’re killing me Eds.” Richie seemed even more rushed and desperate now, as he then grabbed Eddie more firmly as he separated him from the wall and started carrying him to Eddie’s bed, plopping Eddie onto it as he fell on top of him.

Eddie’s breath was so liberated and his heart racing so fast that he thought he made need his inhaler, but this was the first time in his life where being out of breath felt like a good thing. Richie started leaving kisses along his jawline. Every spot Richie’s mouth touched elicited a feeling Eddie had never had before, it was as if Eddie was hyper aware of every spot on his body that was touching Richie’s, each point just causing Eddie’s body to go more into a frenzy.

Eventually Richie’s mouth makes it to Eddie’s neck, where he started giving Eddie large dark purple hickeys. Eddie lets out a moan as he digs his hands deep into Richie’s hair. Unlike before when he was around Richie, or even when kissing him, all the heat in his body was going right to his dick, and he was getting so hard that the constriction of his pants was making him ache even more. He reached the hand that wasn’t currently entwined in Richie’s hair between their bodies to take off his pants, but Richie stopped his hand as he started to move his own downward instead. “Let me get that for you Eds.” Richie said, smiling against Eddie’s chest which he currently had his mouth on.

“Don’t call me Ed-” Eddie let out a loud gasp before he could finish his sentence as Richie’s hand had just come in contact with the hard on in his pants. Just like he thought when he kissed Richie for the first time in that pool, Eddie finally understood what he meant when people talked about the feeling of being with someone else, touching someone else, _feeling_ someone else. It was more than just someone touching your skin, it was as if they were touching something deeper inside of you.

Richie continued to stroke at Eddie, each movement making Eddie’s breath more labored and his toes curl tighter. Richie starts slowly leaving a trail of kisses down Eddie’s chest while Eddie starts tugging at his hair in nervous anticipation. Eddie’s pants have yet to come off, and once Richie’s mouth meets the top of them he teasingly bites the hem of them, starting to drive Eddie crazy.

“Oh my God Rich, just take them off!” He whines.

“What’s the magic word?”

Eddie rolls his eyes, “Please” With that, Richie tugs Eddie’s pants and underwear off in one swift motion. He quickly licks Eddie all the way from the base of his cock up to the tip, causing Eddie to arch his back. Richie pulls away, looking up at Eddie, a smug look on his face. Eddie can’t take Richie’s teasing anymore and when Richie slowly puts the tip of Eddie’s dick in his mouth, Eddie takes the opportunity and knots his fingers in Richie’s hair and pushes the boy’s face all the way down his length.

Richie seems very surprised by Eddie’s action, but he doesn’t try to pull away. Instead he gives into Eddie, and starts bobbing his head up and down as Eddie slowly moves his hips upwards into Richie’s mouth. Their motions are needy and sloppy, Richie getting spit all over both his face as well as Eddie’s lower body. Each time Eddie tugs at Richie’s hair, the taller boy lets out a deep moan around Eddie’s dick.

Pretty soon, Eddie get’s a familiar tight and got feeling in his abdomen, his eyes closing tight as his breath becomes more labored. His motions get sporadic as his hips desperately pound into Richie’s mouth before he shoots down Richie’s throat.

Eddie’s breath becomes more even as he comes down from his orgasm, just now noticing the sweat covering his entire body. He looks down at Richie and pulls the boy up to him by his hair. One hand stays in his hair as the other moves down to unbutton his pants and he shoves his hand under his underwear and slowly starts to stroke him. Judging by the look on Richie’s face and his fast breathing, he’s already almost there. Eddie starts kissing his neck and gives his hair one hard tug before Richie comes undone in his pants. The two boys sweaty foreheads are pressed together as they let out heavy breaths into each other’s mouths.

“Who would’ve thought little Eddie Spaghetti could be so aggressive.”

“Shut up Richie.”

Richie flops down onto Eddie’s bed, Eddie nestling into his side before the two quickly fall asleep.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a note: I have finals this week and probably won't have time at all to write. I may have time to write one chapter, but i really don't want the next chapter to be the one everyone gets left at for a few days. So I apologize ahead of time if I don't update until maybe Wednesday or Thursday

Saturday, 11:11 am

Eddie had just woken up, still lying in bed groggy when the events from last night came rushing back to him. _Richie was here, he was really here_ , he thought, and looked over in bed finding Richie was missing, just like had been last time. Eddie’s heart sunk, he couldn’t believe Richie had done this again, and that Eddie fell for it. He sat up in bed to check his phone to see if Richie had left him a message for once, but saw he had a text from his dad instead.

_Hi. I have bought tickets for the Christmas concert at church next week, I was thinking you and I could bring mom, that would mean a lot to her._

Eddie rolls his eyes before throwing his phone back onto his bedside table. He gets up and gets dressed before heading out to the kitchen to get something to eat. Once he opens his door, he squints his eyes in confusion. There was multiple people talking in the kitchen, and Eddie didn’t remember Steve bringing anyone over the night before. And even if he had, they always leave first thing in the morning.

He slowly walks into the kitchen and sees that Richie and Steve are standing over the stove making food and talking with one another, the radio faintly playing in the background. “Hi! Good morning Eddie!” Richie says to Eddie before walking up to him and grabbing his face to kiss him. “I made us some breakfast. I hope you’re hungry, cuz I’ve made lots of food!” Eddie stands there not moving, very surprised but also pleased that Richie is still here.

“I, uh, I think I have to go get changed to go to yoga.” Steve says seemingly out of nowhere.

“You do yoga?” Richie asks. He doesn’t do yoga.

“Uh, yeah! So I gotta get going.” Steve says as he awkwardly leaves the room.

“I didn’t know what you liked so I just made everything.” Richie wasn’t kidding when he said he made everything. It looked as if he’d made breakfast for an entire family, there was a huge plate of bacon and sausage next to a large stack of pancakes, as well as with several boxes of cereal resting on the counter. Richie was also currently standing at the stove cooking a pan full of eggs, and he’d also dug all the fruit out of the fridge and put it in a large bowl. “Taste this.” Richie said before shoving a spatula covered in eggs in Eddie’s face. “Is it good?”

Richie was shockingly good at cooking, something Eddie didn’t expect from a guy who looked like he only ever wore the same pair of jeans and put caribbean jerk seasoning on mac n cheese. “Mhm.” Eddie mumbles with a mouth still full of food.

“The secret is a tablespoon of sour cream.”

Richie walks back to the stove as Eddie stands behind him staring at him. Eddie still can’t believe he’s really here with Richie, and Eddie’s isn’t sure Richie isn’t going to leave him again. “When I woke up...I thought you’d left.” Eddie says sullenly, as Richie turns around and walks over to Eddie, pressing their foreheads together.

“Hey, I was just here cooking,” Richie says softly. “And chatting with your roommate.” Richie goes back to the stove, but Eddie’s still not fully confident in Richie being committed now.

“Does Beverly know where you are?”

“Fuck Beverly, we’re not together anymore.”

“Yeah, well the last time you said it was over, you were hooking up with her two days later. It’s not easy for me to not give a fuck about her, Rich.”

Richie seems to become more tense. “No, but you’ve got to understand that the thing with Bev is that she’s always in control.” Richie’s voice starts to shake, and he doesn’t turn away from the stove as he speaks. “Sometimes I feel as though she knows me better than I know myself because everything she says is true, and that’s what I’m fucking tired of. I feel as though she can’t feel what I feel, or think for that matter.” Richie turns to face Eddie. “Agreed?” Eddie nods weakly.

“Only you can feel what you feel.” Richie slowly walks up to Eddie, pressing their foreheads together once again as he stares down into Eddie’s eyes.

“And I haven’t felt anything quite like this. Ever.” Richie says as his eyes go soft, even softer than they usually are around Eddie; it’s the most vulnerable Eddie thinks he’s ever seen Richie.

“Neither have I.” Richie leans in connecting his lips with Eddie’s, and puts his hands on Eddie’s hips before pulling back and pressing their faces together again.

Richie lets out a small gasp as he pulls away from Eddie’s, a grin now on his face. “I love this song!” He exclaims before backing up and turning the volume on the radio up higher so Eddie can hear the song now, and Eddie can’t believe Richie is excited over this song.

“Are you kidding?”

“No?! Eds, are you telling me this isn’t your favorite song in the entire world?” Eddie isn’t sure if Richie is joking or not. Richie walks back up to him, grabbing Eddie’s hips as he starts to sway them lightly, before he began singing along to the song.

“ _I hear the drums echoing tonight_

_But she hears only whispers of some quiet conversaaaaaation_

_She's coming in, 12:30 flight_

_The moonlit wings reflect the stars that guide me towards saaaalvatioooon_

_I stopped an old man along the way_

_Hoping to find some long forgotten words or ancient meeeelodieees_

_He turned to me as if to say,”_

Richie now started singing at the top of his lungs, and it sounded to Eddie as if he was he was trying to sing as awfully as he could.

_"‘HURRY BOY, IT’S WAITING THERE FOR YOUUUUU’_

_IT’S GONNA TAKE A LOT TO TAKE ME AWAYYYY FROM YOUUUUU_

_THERE’S NOTHING THAT A HUNDRED OR MORE COULD EVER DOO_

_I BLESS THE RAINS DOWN IN AAAAAAFRICAAAA_

_GONNA TAKE SOME TIME TO DO THE THINGS WE NEVER HAAAaaaAAaaAAD”_

“Christ, this is like that hashtag.” Eddie says.

“What?”

“When you’ve found the man of your dreams, and it turns out he likes _Africa_ by _Toto_.”

“Am I the man of your dreams?!” Richie says as the smirk on his face grows. “Is it me you were talking about?”

“That’s the way the hashtag goes, you know that!”

“No, excuse me! Eddie Spaghetti said I’m the man of his dreams!” Richie’s eyes then darken as he’s staring at Eddie. “...say it again.” He says quietly.

“You’re the man of my dreams.” Richie leans in to connect their mouths once again, and Eddie puts his arms around Richie’s neck pulling him in even more, Richie’s favorite song still playing in the background.

Tuesday, 12:55 pm

Eddie had forgotten to do his science homework, and was currently sitting in the classroom trying to finish the assignment as fast as he can, knowing he only has a few minutes before class was going to begin. He phone rings, distracting him from his homework, and he picks it up seeing a new message from his dad. Eddie hasn’t been replying to him as usual.

_Eddie! That’s it! I have tried getting a hold of you for days. I know you’re mad at me, and that you probably think I’m a coward for leaving mom, but I could not help her. One day I hope you’ll understand that. I’m trying my best._

For once Eddie decides to reply to his dad.

_Fine. I’ll come with you to that Christmas concert. I’m bringing my new boyfriend. His name’s Richie. That’s a boy’s name._

It takes Eddie a while to type out the message, at first nervous to come out to his dad. But at this point, Eddie honestly doesn’t care about his parent’s opinion of him being gay, or anyone’s opinion for that matter. He gets a reply from his dad right away.

_I don’t know if you’re joking right now?_

As Eddie is reading it, his dad sends another message.

_If you’ve gotten a boyfriend then that’s very nice Eddie, and I would love to meet him, but you know how mom is, she gets stressed very easily._

Eddie doesn’t reply, and right when he sets his phone down, Mike takes a seat next to him. “Hey.” He greets Eddie, and Eddie starts frantically working on his assignment again.

“Hey.”

“Forgot to do the assignment?”

Eddie sighs, “Yeah.”

“Did you see that link I sent you?” Eddie has been far too preoccupied to open all his messages.

“Uh, no. What is it?”

“It was just a link to this article.”

“What was it about?”

“Just some research done on the theory of evolution and homosexulity. I was just thinking about the discussion we had a while back, and it’s not often that I’m wrong, but it turns out I was wrong.” Eddie turns to face Mike, now more interested in what he was saying than he was in finishing his homework. “Because homosexuality has played a natural part in evolution. And people have done a lot of new and interesting research on it.” Eddie smiles slightly, touched that Mike cared so much about making Eddie feel better about his own views. “I was wrong.”

“What about Islam? Anything new and exciting on that part, or is it still the same?” Eddie looks over at Mike who seems very displeased with his words.

“Islam says the same as always: That all people in this world have the same worth, and that no person should be spoken about behind their back, be violated, judged, or mocked. So if you hear anyone use religion as an argument for their hatred, don’t listen. Because hate doesn’t derive from religion, it derives from fear.”

Thursday, 2:50 pm

Eddie, Bill, Stan, and Ben had all just gotten out of class together, and were in the hall discussing plans for the upcoming weekend. As they are talking, Eddie sees Richie walking towards the four of them, and all four of them go silent, staring at Richie.

“Hey guys.” Richie says, greeting all of them.

“Guys this is Richie. Richie, this is everyone.” Eddie says, and Richie politely starts to shake each of their hands. The five of them start talking, Richie and Eddie giving each other sweet look and Eddie gets the same luckstruck smile as always.

“Oh, you’re Richie!” Ben exclaims, only just now remembering who Richie was. “I’d completely forgotten!” His face goes red in embarrassment. “He’s the guy who threw us out, right?”

Richie still had no idea that Eddie’s friends had been over last Friday. “I didn’t throw you out! You were going to a party!” Richie smirks, pretending to nod in believement of Eddie’s words.

“Yes you did! You were like, ‘Guys get out, Richie’s here!’”

“Yeah,” Richie says, the smug look on his face growing wide. “But I think it was for the best that you weren’t there.” Eddie’s face goes red as he stares at the floor, his three friends beginning to laugh.

“Well we are going to go get food!” Ben says before he, Bill, and Stan all say their goodbyes and make their way towards the exit, leaving Eddie and Richie alone. As they are standing there, Eddie gets a call from an unknown number.

“Hi, this is Eddie.”

“Hi, uh, it’s Beverly.”

Eddie pulls his phone away from his ear. “It’s Beverly.” He whispers to Richie. Richie then takes the phone from Eddie and holds it up to his ear.

“Don’t fucking call Eddie.” He says coldly, then hangs up the phone. He has the same expression he had Halloween night when him and Beverly nearly got in a fight.

Eddie stands there looking confused. “Why did you do that?”

“Don’t talk to her.”

Eddie doesn’t understand why Richie is acting so serious all of a sudden. “Why? What does she want?”

“She wants to control you.”

“Control me? How would she control me?”

“Because she doesn’t like people who live freely and are real.” Richie then quickly leans in and grabs Eddie’s neck before quickly pressing his lips against Eddie’s. “You’re so fucking hot Eds!” Richie then starts to walk down the hall, looking back and smiling at Eddie as he does.


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> welp here it finally is. Sorry it took a few days, finals were too busy beating me to a pulp this weekend.

Friday , 3:15 pm

Eddie was currently sitting at a coffee shop in a seat that was directly in front of the large window facing the street. He was waiting to meet up with Richie, and was thinking about how he is going to see his parents in a few days, pondering what his dad said about his mom. He didn’t want to surprise her by showing up to church with Richie, and knew it’d be best to tell her soon.

_Hi mom. I’ve started dating a boy. I know you believe in God and that the bible says it’s a sin, but you don’t have to be afraid because it also says that God created man in his image and that everyone is of equal worth. I’m sorry if it makes you sad. Hugs, Eddie._

Eddie sits there nervously tapping his foot, knowing there’s a good chance his mother may not want to have anything anymore. To distract himself, he checks other unread messages on his phone, one in particular being from Beverly.

_Hi Eddie, this is Beverly, can you call me when you are not with Richie. It’s important._

As he’s reading the message, he hears a knock on the glass in front of him and sees Richie is standing on the other side of it, a dopey look on his face. Richie then blows on the glass causing it to fog up, and traces a heart in the fog, before smiling wide and giggling at Eddie.

Eddie gets up and walks outside to meet his boyfriend. They both greet each other, and Eddie is about to go into kiss Richie when he remembers they are on a public road, and gets nervous about kissing Richie in public. “Do you wanna go back to my place?” Eddie asks.

Richie still has a wide smile that hasn’t gone away since he got there. “No, I don’t.”

“Okay? What do you wanna do then?”

“I feel like checking into a fucking hotel suite!” Richie says excitedly, an ecstatic fire behind his eyes that Eddie’s never seen before.

“A suite?”

“Yeah!” Richie starts to walk away without a word, simply expecting Eddie to follow behind.

“Why do you always walk away like that?”

The two boys go into the nice part of the city to the fanciest hotel they can find. Once they get there, Richie walks up to the front desk to greet the concierge. “Hi! We booked a room under the name Richie Tozier.”

“Yes, welcome. Can I see some ID?”

“Of course.” Richie says as he hands her his driver's’ license. “This is my boyfriend.” Richie puts his arm around Eddie’s shoulders.

“How nice.”

“Yeah, it’s very nice.” Eddie’s cheeks are starting to go red. “Isn’t this man beautiful?”

“Yeah.” The concierge agrees, sounding somewhat uncomfortable with the oddness of the conversation.

“Very beautiful.”

When the two get their room key, they get in the elevator and ride it all the way to the top floor.  
Once Eddie gets the door open and the two get in their room, he feels Richie’s one of Richie’s hands on his back and the other on his knees as Richie lifts him up, carrying him bridal style to the massive bed as Eddie lets out a small laugh. Once Richie’s laid Eddie down, he immediately presses his lips to the smaller boy’s. One of Richie’s hands is on Eddie’s neck while the other rests on Eddie’s hip as Eddie runs his hands down Richie’s sides.

Their touches are soft and comforting and nothing like how it was at Eddie’s a few days prior. Their kisses are slow tender, and their touches so fragile it’s as if they thought of each other as a piece of glass. Eddie’s hands are moving graciously over every inch of Richie’s body, trying to memorize every bump and curve. “I think I’m in love with you Eds.” Richie breathes into Eddie’s mouth.

Both boys open their eyes to gaze at one another, a deep look of love and want in their eyes. “I think I’m in love with you too Rich.” Eddie connects their two mouths again before he starts lightly pulls at the hem of Richie’s shirt. Richie takes it off and Eddie’s shirt soon follows. Richie moves his mouth down to Eddie’s neck, leaving small kisses over every inch of his neck and jaw as he slowly rubs his hand up and down Eddie’s leg.

Eddie’s hands are on Richie’s chest, and they start to make their way down to Richie’s pants. He undoes the button and zipper, and Richie then shoves both his pants and underwear off without separating his mouth from Eddie once. Richie takes the hand that isn’t on Eddie’s leg and undoes Eddie’s pants and slides them off his legs. Before Richie can go back to kissing Eddie, Eddie grabs his face in both his hands.

“Richie...I want you t-”

“I know baby.” Richie says and lightly kisses Eddie once before reaching onto the floor beside the bed to get his bag. He grabs a bottle of lube and a condom out of it, setting it down on the bed beside them. Richie coats two of his fingers with lube, leaning down to place soft kisses on Eddie’s neck as he presses a single finger into him. Eddie winces, tightening his grip on Richie’s hips. “Do you wanna stop?”

“No, keep going Rich.” Richie slowly presses his finger in more until it’s all the way in, then starts moving it slowly in and out. Eddie has never done this before, and is trying to get used to the new sensation.

Richie then puts a second finger in, causing Eddie to bite his lip and dig his nails even more into Richie. “Shh, you’re doing so good baby.” Richie coos in his ear. He starts to move his fingers faster, Eddie’s breath becoming more labored once he settles into the feeling.

“I’m ready.”

“You sure?” Richie gazes at Eddie.

“I’m sure.” With that, Richie reaches for the condom at unrolls it on himself, then covers his dick in lube. He leans back over Eddie, holding his dick up to Eddie’s hole. He presses into him, their foreheads against one another’s as he does so.

Eddie’s eyes squint in pain, and Richie rubs the side of his face comfortingly. Richie presses in more until he’s all the way in, waiting for Eddie to give him a signal to move. Eddie nods his head, and Richie starts to slowly pull out of him, steadily picking up speed.

Eddie’s body is in complete euphoria and overdrive. The feeling of Richie inside him was affecting his whole body. There so much love and passion in every single one of their motions. The heat running through Eddie’s body seeped all the way down to his bones, and his vision was almost going white from it. As Richie moved in and out of him, he tenderly left kisses all along his cheek, whispering sweet nothings into his ear. Eddie has never felt so loved and cared for in his life.

Soon Eddie starts to feel his lower abdomen tighten up, his breath becoming increasingly uneven. His fingers entangled in Richie’s hair. “Rich I’m gonna-”

“Let it out baby.” Eddie comes undone, letting out the loudest moan he ever has in his life. Richie soon follows him, “God I fucking love you so much Eddie.” He moans as he does. Richie lays on top of Eddie, the two panting for a few seconds before he flops down beside Eddie. The two lay in silence facing one another, the rush from having sex causing fond smiles to form on their faces.

“How many Eddie and Richies do you think are lying like this right now?” Richie asks Eddie as he runs his hands through Eddie’s hair.

“Infinite.”

“In infinite time.” Richie says so softly that Eddie can hardly hear him.

“Yeah.” The two smile at one another, tenderness in both their expressions.

“You know, the only way to have something for infinite time is by losing it.” The way Richie is talking reminds Eddie of when he was talking about being completely alone that time they were at his apartment. Richie was also so upbeat and nonchalant about life, but in these instance Eddie saw a look of deep forlorning behind Richie’s eyes.

“Don’t say stuff like that.”

Richie stays silent for a while as he continues to play with Eddie’s hair. “I’m only joking.” Richie says, a seemingly fake grin coming back onto his face.

Some time later, the two boys were sat the floor facing one another with nothing covering them except blankets strewn across their laps. They had ordered a bunch of different food from room service, and Richie was currently stuffing his face. “Try this burger!” He says to Eddie with a mouthful of food. Eddie picks it up and takes a bite, nodding to show he thinks it’s good. “You know, at our wedding we’ll only serve mini burgers.” Richie says, sounding fully confident in his statement about getting married.

As much as Eddie likes Richie, he thinks it’s entirely too early to even think about marriage. “At our wedding?” Eddie says, chuckling slightly. Richie had to have been joking.

“You don’t think we’ll get married?” Richie replies, just as serious in his words as before. “We’re so fucking getting married! Grand fucking wedding! And we’ll show up as God and Julius Caesar. No, you know what? We’ll show up as- just completly naked. Completely naked. No clothes. From now on, we’ll do everything naked.”

Eddie isn’t sure what to make of his boyfriend’s words, as the level of audacity seems very odd even for Richie, and Eddie was confused as to if he should be concerned or not. “...okay”

“And I’ll propose to you from a balcony. Just imagine me driving up in a white limo Tesla…” Richie starts laughing so hard at his own words he can barely get them out. “I’ll be driving up and I’ll be yelling ‘PRINCESS VIVIAN!’” Richie almost falls over with how hard he is laughing.

Eddie had hardly the slightest idea of what Richie was talking about. Richie was rowdy and high spirited, but what he said was usually coherent. “...Princess Vivian?”

Richie has yet to stop laughing. “It would be completely genius if that was your answer!” Eddie stares at him in bewilderment. “Because then the whole joke is that you’d think it’s a _Romeo and Juliet_ reference, but you don’t get it until you enter the balcony and you see me sitting there naked with a tie, and that’s when you get the reference!” If Eddie wasn’t concerned enough before, he definitely is now. Each sentence Richie said made him more perplexed. This was the polar opposite of how Richie had been talking earlier.

Richie continues, “And after I’ve climbed up the balcony I’ll ask you, ‘What happens after I’ve saved you?’ And then you answer…” Eddie is having such a hard time processing what Richie is saying that he can’t bring himself to reply. “‘I’ll save you right back.’ It would’ve been so fucking funny! It’s actually one of my dreams.” The entire time Richie was speaking, his wide smile never shrunk.

Saturday, 1:01 am

Eddie was fast asleep in bed, but Richie had yet to show the slightest sign of wanting to rest. He had just gotten in the shower, and the noise from the faucet woke Eddie up. “Don’t you ever sleep?” Eddie mumbles, his eyes still closed. He can hear Richie sporadically walking around the hotel room.

Richie walks over to the bed and climbs on top of Eddie, pressing a kiss to Eddie’s still half asleep face. “Not when you’re lying here looking so fucking hot.” Eddie opens his eyes and smiles at his boyfriend, who is now lying beside him. After a few minutes Eddie falls asleep again, and Richie gets right back up out of bed.

Saturday, 2:24 am

Richie is still shuffling around and making noise in the room, waking Eddie up once again.

“Babyyy. Come lie down with me.” Eddie says, missing the presence of Richie next to him.

“I’m just going out to buy some McDonald’s first.” Eddie opens his eyes in time to see that Richie is walking out the door of the hotel room fully naked. At first Eddie isn’t sure he saw it right, and the Richie’s words from earlier come back to him; _From now on, we’ll do everything naked_. This wasn’t just one of Richie’s jokes anymore, and Eddie honestly had no idea what to do.

He quickly gets out of bed, wrapping a blanket around his bare body before popping his head out into the hallway of the hotel. “Richie?!” He shouts out, hopefully catching Richie before anyone sees him. Getting no response, Eddie goes back into the suite. He starts panicking, and for the first time in weeks he has to take a puff from his inhaler.

Eddie gets dressed as fast as he can and grabs a set of clothes for Richie before running down the hallway to the elevator. He frantically slams on the down button, his heart racing as he takes another puff from his inhaler. It feels as if it takes ten years for the elevator to finally get to his floor. Once he makes it the lobby, a group of employees are all gathered together, and Eddie knows exactly what they’re talking about. “Where did he go?” He asks them, and they point to the main entrance.

Eddie has no idea where to go. He starts wandering around the streets, looking for any sign of Richie and repeatedly calls out his name. _Was this what Beverly was trying to tell me?_ Eddie thinks as he pull out his phone to call Richie’s ex as it’s his last option.

“Hello is this Beverly? S-something’s happened to Richie. Can you check where the closest McDonald’s is?”

“What’s happened?”

“He’s walking around the streets naked! At this time he’s going to get beaten up!” Eddie takes another puff from his inhaler.

“Okay, I’ll be there as soon as I can.” He tells Beverly where he is, and stands there waiting for her. Eddie doesn’t think he’s ever been this worried in his life. His eyes are wide in both shock and panic at what is going on.

After around 15 minutes, Beverly shows up in a cab and appears to be on the phone. “Okay, thank you.” She says before hanging up. “The police have him. So he’s safe at least.” She says to Eddie.

“What just happened?”

“He’s manic! That’s what’s happening right now!” She says sounding aggravated, and Eddie has no idea what manic means. “He’s not well! Do you think he’s in love with you? He’s not! It’s just a sick idea he’s got right now! Last year he memorized the Quran in Arabic because at the time he thought that was a good idea. He’s also not supposed to smoke because that’s not good for him as you might understand. So can you please just stay away?!” She walks away, hitting Eddie’s shoulder as she does. Eddie is left standing there paralyzed with his mouth wide as tears start to fall from his bloodshot eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please don't kill me for this. This is why I didn't wanna leave the story at this last week before not updating for a few days


	16. Chapter 16

Saturday, 10:38 am

Eddie was currently sitting on his bed reading the Wikipedia page for [Mania ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mania)_( AN: link to the page, the summary is a bit lengthy)._ Eddie was now realizing how fake everything with Richie had been; Richie only seemed interested in him because of his mental illness. That’s why Richie was so back and forth, he only was interested in Eddie when he wasn’t thinking straight.

“Hey...” Eddie looks up, and Steve is standing at the door. Steve had seen Eddie when he came home in tears last night, and Eddie had told his roommate exactly what had happened. “Do you need anything?”

“No. It’s fine.”

“It’ll pass Eddie. Even though it doesn’t feel that way right now, even though it’s very painful, heartbreak always hurts. And you might think it won’t pass, but it will...but tell me if you would like to talk, or if you need anything.” Eddie nods, not having looked over at Steve a single time as he was speaking. While he could tell Steve was being very genuine, nothing Steve said made him feel any better.

As Steve walked out of the room, Eddie heard his phone go off. Richie was sending Eddie the lyrics to the song _Cherry Wine_ by _Nas_. Eddie knew Richie was only doing this because of his mania, not because he actually wanted him.

_Hi Richie, I don’t understand shit right now. Stop texting me._

Eddie’s phone went off the second he set it back down, and he prepared himself for Richie’s reply, but it turned out to be his mother.

_To Eddie my son: From the first second I saw you July 21st 2000 at 21:21 I have loved you and I will always love you for all eternity._

Eddie’s face went soft as a smile broke out on it, and single tear escaped his eye. He never expected his mother to still love him.

Tuesday, 11:46 am

Eddie hadn’t gone to school on Monday. All he did was lay in bed and think about Richie. The more he thought about it, the less stable Richie seemed to him. There were times where Eddie was scared for Richie, when Richie would go on about being alone and dying, and also when Richie acted the way he had at the hotel. Eddie had come to the conclusion that Richie was more than likely bipolar. Eddie did go to school Tuesday though, and had just sat down at the lunch table with Bill.

“W-what’s up with y-you not being at s-school?”

“I’m a little down.”

“W-what’s up?”

“Um...Richie lost it.”

“Oh? W-what’d he do?”

“He went outside naked. In the middle of the night.”

“Huh?!”

“Apparently he’s bipolar.”

“Who’s bipolar?” Ben asks as he arrives at the lunch table. “My mom’s also bipolar.”

“You’ve got a crazy mom?”

Ben looks annoyed at Eddie. “She’s not crazy. She’s bipolar.”

“Yeah, but how is she?”

“She’s fucking awesome, but- you’ve met her haven’t you?”

Eddie has to rack his brain. He’s been to Ben’s place before, but nothing had ever stood out about Ben’s mom that made her seem insane. “Yeah, but she’s completely normal.”

“Yes, she’s completely normal. She just has like these periods when she’s depressed or stoked. Who are you guys talking about?”

Eddie lets out a sigh. “Richie. He’s also bipolar He went outside naked in the middle of the night.”

Ben lets out a loud laugh. “Seriously?! Fucking hilarious!”

Eddie stares at Ben with a flat face. “It’s not funny.”

“It’s comical though. You know what my mom did once? She was so pissed off at Comcast that she found out who the regional director was, then she sent a letter of resignation in his name.” Ben and Bill start laughing as Eddie sits with a bothered look on his face. “Where’s Richie now though?”

“At home I guess.”

“Not physically but like in his head. Is he stoked or depressed?”

“I haven’t talked to him.”

“Why not?”

Eddie couldn’t even believe why Ben was asking him that. “Because everything’s bullshit on his part.” He scoffed.

“...what do you mean?”

“You know...he’s been manic.”

Ben looks puzzled by Eddie’s remark. “You’ve been with him for quite some time, he hasn’t been manic the whole time. Like when my mom’s manic, it’s like I can’t get in contact with her. You’ve had lots of contact with Richie.”

“Yeah...but Beverly said he’s been manic the entire time.”

“Who’s Beverly?”

“His ex.”

“So you trust his ex saying he doesn’t have feelings for you?” Eddie thinks about this, realizing how stupid he has been for believing Beverly. “That’s so smart of you Eddie. The best thing I’ve heard all day.” Ben says sarcastically. “What about asking Richie how he feels? He’s not brain dead just because he had a manic episode. Just talk to him when he’s calmed down.” Eddie had never thought of things from this perspective, and gains a sliver of hope about being with Richie.

Wednesday, 5:01 pm

Eddie is currently standing in his room shaking. He’s been holding his phone for several minutes, staring down at Richie’s contact and trying to work up the nerve to call him. He eventually presses call, and nearly reaches for his inhaler as it rings, but the call just goes to voicemail. Then his phone starts ringing, and he was certain it was Richie, but it turned out to be his dad.

“Hi.” Eddie answers.

“Hi Eddie. I just wanted to make sure that you’re coming on Friday.”

“Yeah. I’ll be there. When does it start?”

“8:30. But hey, how nice that you’ve got a boyfriend.”

“It...it was just a joke.”

“Okay, but I’ll see you on Friday Eddie. I’m looking forward to seeing you and mom too.”

“Dad?”

“Yes?”

“It wasn’t a joke. It’s just over.” Eddie’s throat goes dry as his eyes turn red.

“Are you upset about that, or is it-”

“No. It’s okay.”

“Okay, then I’ll see you-”

“Bye.” Eddie hangs up the phone, wiping a tear off his face.

Friday, 8:26 pm

Eddie had just gotten to the church, and was walking up to greet his parents. As they are all greeting one another, Eddie’s phone goes off and he fishes it out of his pocket. There was a very long message from Richie.

_Dear Eddie. I’m now sitting at the place where we met each other for the first time and I’m thinking about you. Soon it’ll be 21:21. I want to tell you a thousand things. Sorry for scaring you. Sorry for hurting you. Sorry for not telling you that I’m bipolar. I was afraid of losing you. I’d forgotten that it’s not possible to lose someone, that all people are alone anyway. A different place in the universe we are together for all eternity, remember that. Love you. Richie._

Eddie is so shocked by this that he has no idea what to say or do. He doesn’t know if he should ignore it or reply to it, and if he does reply he has no idea what to say. As he’s staring down at the message, his parents start to walk to their seats in the pews, and he follows. While sitting there and listening to a man singing a hymn, his mind wanders back to the text. He opens his phone to read it again, absorbing every word as best he can. He knows a simple reply won’t be enough. He has to go to Richie. Right now.

He quietly shuffles past his parents, and walks out of the church. He starts running down the street back to the first place they met. As he is, all his happy memories with Richie come back. The night in the hotel before everything bad happened, the day in the locker room when Richie told him he was leaving Bev, the night Richie showed up at his apartment, the day the two spent the entire day lying in Eddie’s bed and talking, the night the two first kissed in the pool, the night at the party where Richie stared at him while kissing Beverly, the day the two were at Richie’s apartment smoking, and finally the moment they met on that park bench outside school on the night of the student government meeting.

Once Eddie gets there, Richie’s not there. He’s too late. But then Eddie remembers that’s not where he met Richie. He met him in the school bathroom, the first time Eddie ever saw that stupid smirk that he loves so much. He turns around to walk into the school, and he sees Richie walking out the doors. Eddie’s breath hitches, and the two stand still as their eyes lock with one another. They slowly start to walk towards one another, never breaking eye contact. As he gets closer, Eddie can see that Richie looks very shocked to see Eddie came.

Once they are in front of one another, Eddie presses his forehead to Richie’s. He tenderly runs his face along Richie’s, grazing his nose and cheek against the side of Richie’s face. He breathes and feels as much of Richie as he can, trying his best to translate to Richie how much he is there, how much he loves him, how much he will do for him to make sure he’s okay. Richie stands with his eyes closed shut, almost as if he is fighting back tears. Eddie slowly reaches his hands up, placing one on each side of Richie’s face and moves Richie’s head to face his own. Eddie looks right into Richie’s eyes, staring deep into them before saying the one thing he knows Richie needs to hear more than anything.

“You’re not alone.” Richie’s eyes turn red, tears forming in them. Eddie slowly pulls Richie’s face closer to his, almost as if he’s hesitant to kiss him, as then though this is not there first kiss, it means far more than any other moment of intimacy they’ve shared. This will signify that Eddie is here to say, he’s willing to take on every single part of Richie, and will do everything in his power to care for Richie and never make him feel like there is something wrong with him.

When he finally kisses Richie, it feels nothing like any of their other kisses. The kiss is steady and soft, containing nothing but love and tenderness for one another. Once they pull apart, Eddie stares at Richie again before pulling him in for an embrace, holding Richie as tight as he can.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There’s only one, maybe two, chapters left! And here’s a link to the scene at the end of this chapter because I feel no amount of words can do it justice. http://that4amkick.tumblr.com/post/168353819208/skamz-im-not-saying-this-moment-was-beautiful


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for taking a few days to update, I just got home from college and have been unpacking. Only one more chapter after this one guys!

Saturday, 10:15 am

Eddie and Richie were lying in Eddie’s bed. Richie had been sleeping all morning, curled up in a blanket facing away from Eddie. Eddie knew his boyfriend was depressed right now, and he felt awful as he knew no way to help. All he knew to do was be there with him, and that’s exactly what he was doing.

Occasionally he’d hold Richie as tight as he could, rubbing his hand along the side of his body. He lied there just staring at Richie, hating having to see him like this. Eddie wished he could make Richie see what he thinks of him, how much Eddie loves the way his hair falls in his face, how his clothes never seemed quite perfectly clean, how a smug look hardly ever leaves his face no matter the situation. That goddamn smirk was the death of Eddie. And there was currently no trace of it on Richie’s face, and that’s how Eddie knew how serious things were. Eddie worries about what Richie’s parents must be thinking, but has no way of contacting them, and the only person he thinks can is Beverly.

_Hi Bev, I just wanted to tell you that Richie is with me if his parents are worried or anything. And I’m sorry if it’s because of me that he’s not well._

Rather than text him back, Beverly calls him.

“Hi.” Eddie greets her.

“Hi.”

“I don’t have the number to his parents.”

“They know he’s with you. He sent them a text. I just called to say that I’m sorry for last time.”

“Oh, uh, it’s okay.” It wasn’t.

“No, but I didn’t mean to get angry with you. It wasn’t your fault. At all.”

“Yeah well you were worried, so I understand.”

“It’s not your fault Richie is depressed. He’s bipolar and it’s not your fault. Okay?”

“Okay, but should I get him to his parents or something?”

“I actually think it’s good for him to be with you.”

“Is there anything I can do for him?”

“No, not really. You just need to be there for him. And when everything seems hopeless, you just need to take it one day at a time. And if one day becomes too much, then just take it one hour at a time. And if one hour gets too much, just take it one minute at a time.”

Later once Eddie is lying in bed staring at Richie again, Richie finally wakes up, and the two look at one another. Richie’s face seems blank of any emotion.

“Hi.” Eddie says quietly.

“Hi.”

“Hungry?”

“What time is it?”

“Around 10:30”

“I should leave.” Richie says, barely audible.

“Why?”

“Because I don’t want you to lie here and feel like you have to look after me.”

Eddie didn’t feel like that at all, all he wanted was to ensure that Richie was safe and beside him. “I don’t feel like I’m looking after you. And why is that wrong? To look after you?”

“There’s nothing wrong with it. I just can’t stand that you lie here all sad.”

“I’m not sad.”

Richie says silent for a while, and Eddie thinks he isn’t going to reply at all. “I just know that this isn’t going to work out.”

:Why do you say that?” Eddie’s voice cracks as he speaks.

“Because it’s true. I’m just going to hurt you, and then you’ll hate me.”

Richie couldn’t be more wrong about the situation. Nothing Richie did could make Eddie hate him. “No. You don’t know shit about how this is going to end. I mean, we might get a nuclear bomb dropped on our heads tomorrow and then discussing this is just a waste of time. So I suggest that you just screw talking about the future, and then the two of us will just this thing completely chill. Let’s play a game. It’s called _Eddie and Richie: Minute by Minute_.” Eddie reaches his hand out to rub the side of Richie’s face. “It’s about that the only thing we need to worry about is the next minute. You up for it?” The entire time Eddie has been speaking, Richie has stared at him with no change in his expression.

“Okay.” Richie whispers. “What should we do this minute then?”

“This minute we’ll kiss.”

Richie smiles for the first time that day. “That’s chill.”

Eddie moves towards Richie, leaning over his face as he connects their lips.

Monday, 10:36 am

Richie was still too down to come to school, so Eddie was letting him stay home at his apartment. Steve was at home also, and he had no idea what to do about Richie. Eddie was currently on the phone with his frantic roommate as he was making his way to his locker. “Steve he’s asleep, just let him sleep.”

“But shouldn’t I wake him up and ask him how he’s doing?”

“No, why would you do that?”

“I don’t know, it was you who said to take care of him.”

“I asked you to keep an eye on him because he’s depressed, not look after him as though he’s an infant. Just let him sleep-”

“Oh! I think he just woke up. Talk to you later.” With that, Steve ends the call.

“Hi Eddie!” Eddie looks over, and Max is walking towards him.

“Hi Max.”

“Have you seen the message I posted on the student government page?”

Student government hasn’t even crossed his mind once in the past few weeks with everything that’s been going on. “Oh yeah, student government. No, I haven’t.” He chuckles.

“Why are you laughing?”

“I just had almost forgotten that the club even existed.”

“You’re still in it?”

“Of course I’m still in it. Who do you think I am?”

“Okay, because a lot of the different clubs have this Christmas get together, and it went so well the last time we had the pregame at your place, so I was wondering if we could possibly have it at yours?”

“Yeah.” Eddie only agrees because he knows Max will have him throw the party regardless of how much he protests.

“Yeah?! Is it okay with your roommate?”

“I’m sure it is.”

“I’ll send out the invites then!”

Max leaves, and once Eddie gets his stuff from his locker, he sees that Jane is over at hers and starts to walk over to there. Even though he isn’t trying to be with Jane, he knows she doesn’t deserve to be hung to dry by him.

“Hey.” Eddie says.

“Hi.”

“So there’s this asshole in junior year who will be hosting this Christmas get together with student government on Friday. So he was wondering if you wanted to come, because he thinks it would be really nice.”

“I’m not in student government anymore, so...”

“I understand.”

“But you should tell the asshole that I’m very glad he asked.”

“I’ll tell the asshole. He’ll appreciate it.”

“Do that.” The two smile as they walk off in opposing directions.

Wednesday, 8:01 pm

Eddie had just gotten home from Bill’s house, and walks into his room to find Richie and Steve yelling at the TV while playing a video game.

“Hey.” He says, getting both their attentions.

“Hey!” Richie replies.

“Nice, you’re home. I’m fucking exhausted!” Steve says before getting up and leaving the room. Eddie then goes and sits beside Richie, giving him a kiss before the two lie down.

“Everything okay?” Eddie asks his boyfriend.

“Did you ask Steve to look after me?”

“Uh, no!” Eddie says, not sound believable.

“Holy fuck,” Richie laughs. “You’re such a bad liar!”

“Huh?! I’m a bad liar? I’m a fucking mastar liar,” he isn’t. “There’s no one who’s a better liar than me Rich! I mean, you have no idea what I’ve gotten away with.” Richie has been laughing and grinning the entire time.

“Well tell me. What have you gotten away with?” Nothing.

“No, I mean, you don’t want to know.” Richie starts laughing more, and Eddie reaches out, placing his hand on Richie’s chin. “I like seeing you laugh.” Eddie’s phone starts ringing, and when he sees who’s calling him he lets out a large groan. “Fuck, Max...nagging me so fucking much about that student government stuff.”

“The student government! I’d completely forgotten about it.”

“Don’t tell her because she’ll get pissed. Terrified that people didn’t even want to join.”

“Well, I was only there to meet you.”

Eddie’s face goes beet red. “Seriously?!”

“Yeah. Did you think I was there to have fun?” Eddie is somewhat confused, he hadn’t had any real interactions with Richie until that first night.

“Had you seen me before that first student government meeting?”

Richie’s eyes go soft. “Yeah.” He says faintly. “I saw you the first day of school.”

“Woah…” Eddie hasn’t had this feeling inside him since he first saw Richie in the cafeteria all those weeks ago. His phone starts ringing again, getting another call from Max, so he finally answers to make her go away. “Hi Max.”

“Do you have a Christmas tree?”

“No we don-”

“Can you go buy one?”

“If you’re so adamant on having a Christmas tree you’ll have to buy one yourself.”

“Where?”

“Where? You can buy a Christmas tree anywhere Max!” Eddie shouts in annoyance.

“Okay, I’ll go get one at Walmart or something. Bye.”

“Bye.” Eddie groans once he hangs up the call.

“Christmas tree?” Richie asks.

“Yeah. I’ll be hosting a Christmas get together here on Friday for student government. Do you wanna come?”

“I actually promised my mom that I’d come by home to eat and stuff..or I don’t know. I was thinking I’ll just stay there for a while.”

“Just take it one day at a time.” Richie smiles over at him, the scoots in closer to press his mouth to Eddie’s.


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for taking a bit to update, I was way busier this week than I thought I'd be with work and family and everything and had no free time until tonight

Thursday, 1:55 pm

Eddie had just gotten out of class, and was walking across the school courtyard towards Bill, Stan, and Ben. “Hey guys!” He greets once he gets there, them all then greeting him as well.

“How’s it going with Reddie?” Ben asks, the guys now having given Eddie and Richie a ship name.

“Good I guess. We’re taking it day by day, minute by minute.”

“Eddie and Richie: Minute by Minute, that’s the kind of shit people write in fanfiction. I’d read it myself.”

“That’s kind of fucked up to think about.”

“Why? You think I couldn’t handle reading about two guys banging?”

“No, it’s more just that you’d be reading about us bang, because that would be a real turn off.” Eddie smirks as Bill and Stan start chuckling.

“You think I’m a turn off?”

“You’re definitely not a turn on.”

“Bullshit! You’d so bang me if you had the chance, you know it.”

“No” Eddie laughs.

“Okay, who would you bang first out of all of us?”

“Bill.” Eddie turns to his best friend.

“Th-that’s what I th-thought.” Bill high fives him.

“Okay, between me and Stan then.”

“Ah, that’d be...Stan.” Bill and Stan haller.

“Second place!” Stan boast.

“Why doesn’t anyone wanna bang me?!”

“You’re just desperate.” Eddie replies.

“I’m not desperate! I’m super chill.”

“Oh shit bro,” Stan interjects, looking off away from the group. “There are the dancing chicks.” Eddie’s three friends stare at the group of girls walking towards them, mouths agape.

“You’re Eddie, right?” One of the girls asks once they reach the four boys.

“Yeah.”

“We just heard that you’ve got a thing with that senior Richie, and so we just wanted to say that we dig it. It’s insanely cute when two guys are together.” Eddie knows the girls are trying to flatter him, but he honestly doesn’t care what they think of his relationship.

“Cool.” He says flatly.

“And the dance group will be having a Christmas get together this Friday,” Ben, Bill, and Stan look Eddie with grins plastered on their face. “You can join if you like.”

“I don’t think I can because I’m going to the student government get together, which is also on Friday, so…” Both the girls and his three friends stare at him in amazement about his refusal.

“That’s too bad, but we’ll probably see you around.” The girls leave, and uncomfortable mood settling around the boys.

“What the fuck?!” Ben says.

“What?”

“Christmas get together with student government?” Stan asks.

It wasn’t just an excuse, Eddie was throwing the party at his place on Friday and couldn’t get out of it even if he wanted to go to the dancers’ party, which he doesn’t. “Yeah I’ll be there, so you’re welcome to join guys, I’m hosting.”

“The gate to paradise wide open, and you’re talking about a Christmas get together with student government? What the fuck?” Stan replies.

Eddie’s gotten sick of his friends using him to get girls. “Guys, you need to start getting chicks yourselves.” Eddie says before walking off.

Friday, 5:54 pm

All of Eddie’s friends were currently at his house for the Christmas. Everyone was happy and having a good time making Christmas decorations, and baking cookies, and having cheerful conversations. Eddie, Ben, Stan, and Bill were in his kitchen, beers in hand. They were all teasing Ben for how desperate he has been being and were trying to convince him to go talk to a girl at the party.

“You c-can’t be so s-serious about it or else they a-aren’t interested.” Bill says to Ben.

“Guys, seriously, I get really nervous. What if she like, doesn’t say yes?”

“I think it’s not the end of the world if it doesn’t work, just think that it’s a positive thing if it does work, so-” Eddie says.

“It’s fucking awkward if I stand there and she says no.”

“Yeah, but you don’t outright ask her, ‘Hey, should we hook up?’”

“You just gotta straighten your back and say ‘hey’.” Stan chimes in.

“Should I touch her and stuff?”

“Yeah, if it’s appropriate.” Stan replies. As they are talking, Richie walks into the kitchen to join the four friends, greeting them.

“What’s up?” Eddie’s boyfriend asks.

“We’re helping Ben bang some girl he likes.” Eddie explains.

“How’s that going?” Richie asks.

“He just shouldn’t be so desperate and then I think he’s got it!” Stan answers.

“It’s just that it’s fucking impossible not to be desperate when I don’t get what it means to be desperate.” Ben sighs.

“Okay, s-so just imagine, like, who do y-you th-think of as a really cool, laid back g-guy? And then pretend to be like h-him.” Bill interjects.

“You know what Ben?” Richie says. “I think you should just go all in and be more of yourself. Take desperate to a new level.”

“What do you mean?” Eddie asks as the boys start to nod in agreement.

“Well, show her just how desperate you really are then. Go all out!”

“Take desperate to a new level.” Ben says, partially to himself. “I’m gonna do this.” With that, Ben sets his drink down and leaves the kitchen to go talk to that girl.

“I gotta see th-this.” Bill laughs as him and Stan leave the kitchen as well, leaving Eddie and Richie alone.

Richie moves closer to Eddie, leaning down to kiss him.

“How’s it going?” Eddie asks.

“I’m fine. I just talked to my mom and the reason she’s nagging is because she really wants to meet you.”

Eddie is surprised by this; before he thought that his parents were uncomfortable with Richie staying at his place for so long. “Oh!”

“So, what do you say we drop by tomorrow?”

Eddie was nervous about meeting Richie’s parents, but still really wanted to. “Yeah!”

“Yeah? You don’t think that it’s awkward?”

“No, I don’t find anything is awkward anymore, as long as you’re smiling and wear clothes then life’s chill.” The two laugh together.

“I promise I’ll wear clothes.”

“Hey.” The two look over and see Mike has walked into the kitchen with them.

“Mike!” Eddie says happily about seeing his friend. “You’ve met one another right?”

“The student government.” Mike says to Richie.

“Yeah.”

“Yeah biology partner, and friend.” Eddie says.

“How’s Eddie doing in biology really?” Richie asks Mike.

“...he’s average, I guess you could say.”

“Mike, that’s bullshit! I’ve helped you to get a fucking B while I’ve been at an A the entire year!”

“I have a Christmas present for you.” Mike says, ignoring what Eddie said about their class together as he hand’s him a wrapped gift.

“For me? What is it?”

“Open it!” Eddie unwraps the gift, finding a small baggie of weed inside and presumes it was the weed Mike had kept from when he’d found Eddie’s all those weeks ago.

“The 10%! Thank you.” Eddie laughs. “It wasn’t of any use to you after all?”

“I used it right now didn’t I?”

“True.” Mike walks out of the kitchen, and Richie has the baggie in his hand examining it before Eddie takes it from him. “You’re not getting any of it!” Richie looks at him displeased. “It’s not good for you.”

Richie lets out a great sigh. “It’s not good for you either!”

“It’s completely fine for me,” Eddie scoffs. “But not for you.”

“Are you going to be the one to tell me if its good or not?”

“Of course I am.” Richie’s face has gotten increasingly closer to his own. “It’s my job.”

“You’ve got a job?”

“Yeah, it’s literally my job, that’s why I’m doing this you know?” Eddie jokes. “I found this poster that said _Richie Tozier needs a support person and boyfriend_.”

Richie laughs. “And then you applied?”

“Yeah, cause I thought, holy fuck he’s hot!” Richie leans in and kisses Eddie as his arms go around Eddie’s waste.

“That was nice. You’re so nice.”

“I could’ve done it for free, but it’s nice-”

“You’re getting paid?!”

Yeah, your mom pays me 80 a week.”

“What?! Are you kidding me?!”

“Yeah, it’s no wonder she wants to ‘meet’ me.”

“Holy fuck, I’m getting some of that money.”

“No.”

“Yeah!”

“It’s my money, you’re not getting any of it.” Richie leans in to press his lips to Eddie’s again, the two smiling as he does so. “I’m gonna go talk to Max, that alright? Or are you gonna keep pestering me about stealing my money?”

“No, go right ahead, but I am going to get some.” Richie winks and spanks Eddie’s ass as Eddie walks away to the living room. As he’s walking over to Max who is sitting at a coffee table painting a decoration, he sees Ben making out with the girl they had been talking about. “Hi.” He says to Max as he sits down beside her, having something he wanted to talk to her about.

“Hey there! How’s it going?”

“I’m doing good, and yourself?”

“Same, just sitting here decorating my angel. How’s it with Richie?” The two look over in said boy’s direction, seeing him hanging up a mistletoe with Steve.

“Good, taking it one day at a time. I’ve been thinking about something actually.”

“Yeah? What?”

“I just wanted to say sorry for that stuff last year,” The year before, Max and Bill were dating, and Max confided in him that she’d kissed another guy. Eddie promised to keep it a secret, but he told people because he was jealous of Max for being with Bill, as he used to have a crush on his best friend. “When I was ruining it for you and Bill, it’s not okay what I did.”

“You didn’t fuck it up between Bill and I, it was Bill and I who fucked it up between us.”

“That might be, but I still feel as though I tricked you, and when I told you I had feelings for you it wasn’t true.”

“I figured that out.” She chuckles. “I’m over it, and you should be too.” Eddie is relieved that his friend isn’t still mad at him about everything that happened. “Can’t we talk about your boyfriend instead? Is he ‘the man of your dreams’?”

“That I don’t know.” Eddie honestly didn’t. He was scared to say Richie was, and then lose him.

“No?”

“Is it important?”

“No, but is it okay between the two of you?”

“It’s amazing! But a week ago it was very bad, so it’s a bit up and down.”

“Stressful.”

“Yeah, and the fact that it’s so good when it’s good is also kind of the reason why it’s so bad when it’s bad, if that makes sense? And it can all suddenly be over tomorrow, but I’m still insanely happy that I met him.”

“Because...that’s when you were certain that you like boys?”

“Yeah,” that is one thing Richie did for him, but that’s not why he was happy about it. “But no, more because I was fake before it. Or I mean I was only lying at home watching _Narcos_ and gaming and stuff, and I’m over that. Now I want my life to be real. Even if that means it’ll be absolutely awful at times, it’ll still way better than for everything to be fake and boring.”

The two smile at one another. “Well said.”

“It’s a little bit cliche, but you never know who’ll die tomorrow, and whether you believe in Allah, or Jesus, or the theory of evolution, or parallel universes, there’s only one thing we all know for certain.”

“What’s that?”

Eddie looks back at Richie, and the two share a look with one another, smiling. “That life is now.”

**_EVERYTHING IS LOVE_ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> there's the end guys! It's great to tie the knot on the first fic I've ever written


End file.
